APIs – the rules and protocols that facilitate seamless communication between software applications – have surged over the past few years. Today, they are essential drivers of digital transformation, allowing businesses to adapt quickly as web apps become increasingly interconnected.
Research from ESG revealed that 96% of organizations rely on APIs for their apps and the 2024 State of API Security Report found that 66% of respondents manage more than 100 APIs, an increase of 59% from 2023.
Yet, as API usage grows rapidly, the focus on securing them has not kept pace, leaving a critical vulnerability in many systems. A study published in early 2025 revealed that 55% of respondents experienced an API security breach within the past year. And in a test using an API honeypot – a security mechanism designed to detect, deflect, or study malicious activities targeting APIs – threat actors took just 29 seconds to identify a newly deployed API and less than a minute to exploit an unprotected one. These findings underscore the need for every organization utilizing APIs to ensure they have strong, proven safeguards.
Challenges to Securing APIs
Lack of awareness
Amid the surge of new API launches, many organizations’ security teams are simply not informed of their existence, leaving critical APIs exposed.
Extensive attack surface
APIs’ design makes them accessible over networks, including the internet, which increases their attack surface.
Diverse attack vectors
APIs can be targeted by a range of attacks, including injection (SQL, XML), cross-site scripting (XSS), distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), and man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks.
Third-party integrations
APIs frequently depend on third-party services, making them vulnerable to the security practices of those providers.
Misconfigurations
Incorrectly configuring API endpoints or network devices can expose the API to unauthorized access.
Dynamic environments
In modern microservices architectures, APIs communicate with various services across distributed systems. Ensuring secure communication between services can be a significant challenge.
Protecting Your APIs
with Fortra Managed WAF
Level up your API security with Fortra Managed WAF. Beyond our industry-leading WAF technology, proven process, and commitment to innovation, the heavy lift and hurdles to deploying and updating your WAF can be alleviated.
Our managed WAF solution guides you from the initial kickoff call to comprehensive protection. Alert Logic’s dedicated security analysts stay available to update and scale your policies as needed, ensuring your API security is always up to standard.
Fortra Managed WAF safeguards your APIs against application attacks using targeted policies powered by automated API discovery and mapping. API security provided via our WAF provides traditional and behavior-based threat detection to enhance your protection from:
- Exploits
- DDoS
- Positive and negative security policies
- Cloud malware injection attacks
API Security Testing
API security testing is a vital element of proactive web application security, safeguarding critical areas such as user access, encryption, and authentication. By thoroughly testing APIs, organizations ensure that fundamental security requirements are met, protecting sensitive data and preventing vulnerabilities.
API Scanning
With Fortra Managed WAF, you have OpenAPI support to directly integrate with your API definition, API request validation to ensure valid requests, known vulnerabilities including SQL-injections, cross-site scripting, and the rest of the OWASP Top 10.
Offensive Security Testing
Fortra’s offensive security solutions offer a proactive approach to web application and API security, including:
Overcome WAF API Mismanagement
A proven WAF has the potential to be a security superstar for your organization. However, more often than organizations realize, poor management by an internal team causes the WAF to underperform, leaving your APIs vulnerable and at risk.
With Fortra Managed WAF, mismanagement becomes a thing of the past. No longer will you struggle with unprotected APIs, the balance between false positives and negatives, evolving threats, or the need for constant optimization. Our managed WAF provides powerful tools and expert support to ensure your APIs stay secure and operational, offering continuous protection against potential threats.
Resources
Get to Know API Security
Why Protect APIs? Best Practices to Secure API Endpoints
Infographic
Trends in Modern Application Protection
On-Demand Webinar
Eliminating the Complexity of Application Security
Blog