Botlab
online security organization
Botlab (previously known as botlab.io) is a non-profit, volunteer based research foundation focused on research, publication and open-source development related with ad fraud, malvertising, privacy violations and other malicious practices in the advertising supported internet. Botlab's global volunteer network works towards the goal of more transparent and more secure internet.
Media Coverage
A paper authored by Botlab, Compendium of Ad Fraud Knowledge has been widely covered in the media including a Financial Times cover story. The paper is a collaboration with World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), whose members collectively represent 90% of the world's US$700 advertising budgets. WFA published the paper as an official guideline document to its members for understanding and countering ad fraud.
Botlab researchers were featured in two additional Financial Times cover stories during 2015 and 2016 one of which was Big Read , a major editorial piece of the week in Financial Times print. In addition Botlab's work and commentary have been widely featured in ad industry press, events and social media.
Research
During 2016 Botlab's Ad Fraud Council was the author of World Federation of Advertisers guidance on ad fraud to its members titled Compendium of Ad Fraud Knowledge. Botlab also contributed as co-author to Independent auditing of online display advertising campaigns, a research paper accepted to Hotnets academic conference in 2016 and was a major contributor in Entropy Method for Detecting Invalid Traffic at Scale, a paper introducing an open source method for large scale detection of invalid traffic.
Open Source Contributions
During 2015 and 2016 Botlab made available three open source solutions focused on detection and prevention of advertising fraud:
Denylist - a blacklist consisting of over 130 million data center IP addresses
Sitemind - a site research tool for researchers and media planners to counter ad fraud
Nameles - an entropy based detection and filtering solution to counter ad fraud
Collaboration with Trade associations
In addition to being listed as one of the partners by World Federation of Advertisers, since Botlab's founding in early 2015 its Principal Mikko Kotila acted as the co-chair for I-COM's Data science Board, I-COM is a global trade body backed by 100 associations in 40 countries, today, exploring the creation of business value from Marketing Data & Measurement.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Botlab” is online security organization. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Botlab, online and security, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “online security organization” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28407909. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2015 and 2016.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Botlab”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Botlab primary sources, Botlab archive and Botlab research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Botlab”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Botlab” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.