API attack traffic has grown at triple the rate of overall API traffic
Additional report findings include 64% of survey respondents have delayed an application rollout over API security concerns and 94% have experienced an API security incident
Salt Security released the Salt Labs State of API Security Report, Q3 2021. The latest edition, compiled six months after the company’s inaugural report, reveals significant challenges in addressing API security, with all Salt customers experiencing API attacks, security topping the list of API program concerns, and very few respondents feeling confident they can identify and stop API attacks. In the past six months, Salt data shows overall API traffic has increased 141% – in the same time period, API attack traffic grew a staggering 348%. The sobering report findings illustrate the security consequences of the rapid growth in API use driven by digital transformation and IT modernization projects.
“APIs and the valuable data they access are linchpins of today’s data- and application-centric economy. Yet APIs remain one of the most vulnerable elements of any organization’s application or software stack,” said Roey Eliyahu, co-founder and CEO, Salt Security. “Anecdotally, we know we find critical security vulnerabilities in the APIs of 90% of the prospects we support. This report quantifies those anecdotal findings, highlighting the API security risks companies are living with everyday. As API adoption and traffic has accelerated, so have the security risks. APIs are meant to enable innovation, not stifle it, as we’re seeing in this report.”