Rampant API Growth Causing Cybersecurity Risks for Businesses - Seite 2

In Fastly’s experience, credential stuffing, business logic abuse, and DDoS attacks are just a few of the malicious automated bot attacks that are being deployed to take over accounts and perpetrate identity theft and fraud. Readily available scripts and tools make orchestrating API attacks easier than ever, and legacy bot defence techniques struggle to detect these potentially devastating incursions.

AI security solutions untapped – but coming

One solution to the complexity of the API landscape could be a new generation of AI-powered cybersecurity systems, but Fastly found there is currently little enthusiasm for this. Only 14% of companies surveyed regarded the use of AI technologies in API security as a priority. That said, 58% anticipate that generative AI will have a ‘large or very large’ impact on API security over a window of approximately 2-3 years.

Sector-based and regional variations

One concerning aspect of Fastly’s survey is that heavily-regulated sectors dealing with sensitive data are some of the worst culprits when it comes to API inaction. Only 80% of respondents in financial services placed a high or very high level of importance on API security. This compares with 89% in wholesale, retail and e-commerce.

In terms of regional variations, the importance of API security was rated highly in the UK (86%) compared to a cross-border average of 79%. Zombie APIs and data scraping were cited by UK firms as priorities. Despite this, there was still a tendency in the UK not to translate thoughts into actions. “79% of UK participants said their API security was not advanced,” notes Coley, “compared with 84% across the board. This represents a huge target for increasingly sophisticated cyber criminals to aim at.”

One intriguing insight is the gulf in attitudes within company hierarchies. 91% of C-suite and compliance experts place ‘a high or very high’ level of importance on API security but only 74% of in-house security specialists feel the same way. The implication, perhaps, is that the security cohort is underestimating the scale of the threat – either that or they are exposed to a wider pool of threats on a day to day basis.

To read the full report and understand how businesses can help establish a secure digital environment, visit https://learn.fastly.com/api-security-study-24.html.

About the research

This research surveyed 235 key IT and cybersecurity decision-makers in large organisations spanning multiple industries across the UK, France, Spain, the Nordics and DACH region.