The digital economy could not function without application programming interfaces (APIs). APIs serve as messengers, allowing applications and services to communicate. According to Akamai, as much as 83 percent of Internet traffic travels through APIs. Akamai also found that 29 percent of web attacks targeted APIs during 2023.
The ubiquity of APIs makes them a prime target for cybercriminals. According to a new report from Check Point, almost 22 percent of organizations were affected by a web API attack every week in the first month of 2024 alone. That represents a 20 percent increase over January 2023. Cloud-based networks saw a 34 percent increase in attacks, surpassing the number of API attacks in on-premises networks.
A Fastly survey found that 95 percent of organizations had experienced API security issues in the preceding 12 months. More than three-fourths (79 percent) delayed a new application rollout due to concerns about API security. But while 79 percent of security leaders are concerned about API security, 84 percent said they don’t have advanced controls in place. Lack of budget and expertise were the primary reasons.
Common API Risks
Among the most common API vulnerabilities involve broken authentication and authorization. These occur when the API developer fails to implement strong user authentication, such as multifactor authentication, or fails to validate that a user is authorized to access certain resources. Attackers leverage these vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to sensitive systems or data. Automated hacking tools could allow an attacker to gain virtually unrestricted access.
Failure to validate input can lead to a variety of attacks, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting and remote code execution. In these attacks, the hacker inserts malicious code into the application or website or gains the ability to run commands on the system.
Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are also associated with API vulnerabilities. If the API developer does not limit the number of requests a system or user can make within a given period, an attacker could flood the API with requests.
Why AI Is Needed
Protecting against these threats is difficult due to the scale and complexity of the API environment. Organizations may use hundreds or even thousands of APIs, many of which are developed by third parties. It’s simply impossible to manage and secure that many APIs manually. “Shadow” APIs also pose significant risks.
Additionally, many organizations use traditional, reactive security measures that are largely ineffective against today’s attacks. Advanced attacks work quietly over time so that rules-based systems cannot detect them. Dynamic threats evolve constantly as malicious actors adapt their attacks to exploit new vulnerabilities and evade new security measures.
Artificial intelligence can help organizations overcome these challenges. AI is well-suited to automating high-volume tasks and identifying subtle patterns in data. It can learn normal behaviors, detect anomalies and quickly adapt to changing tactics. It can also dynamically adjust rate limits to prevent DoS attacks.
Getting Ahead of Hackers
Most importantly, AI allows for more proactive defense mechanisms by predicting potential threats. AI-enabled tools also help software developers improve API security through automated testing and remediation.
Technologent has proven expertise in automating IT operational and security processes and has developed a practice to help organizations harness the potential of AI. API security is a key pillar of our AI-focused practice. We recognize that hackers are using AI to automate and optimize their tactics, so organizations must leverage AI to get ahead of those threats.
The use of APIs is highly efficient but also comes with significant risks. Traditional security tools and practices can’t keep up with evolving threats. Let Technologent help you apply AI to API security, freeing up IT resources while reducing the risk of an API attack.
Comments