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Application programming interfaces (APIs) are effective for bringing data together, but they can also increase the attack surface.
Within the last year, 99% of organizations have had an API-related security issue. Because APIs are often invisible to many traditional security tools, they offer a convenient blind spot that threat actors can expose.
And if your Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider can’t see them, neither can you. API security for MDR buyers is becoming a real challenge.
It’s time to bring these hidden risks to light.
Why APIs Are a Growing Threat Surface
APIs are the ultimate connectors essential for businesses to pull data and bring services from different applications. But their accumulation has multiplied the attack surface. Shadow APIs, zombie APIs, and automated bot abuse create dangerous blind spots that security teams aren’t addressing.
Shadow and Zombie APIs
If you can’t control something, how can you protect it? That’s the challenge with shadow APIs. They’re undocumented endpoints thrown in by developers that can’t be easily found or managed. Maybe they were under a tight deadline and threw in a test API, but never decommissioned it. Or an employee who wanted to automate data entry by having two apps communicate, but didn’t notify IT.
Then there’s zombie APIs. These are the active but forgotten legacy endpoints. You commonly see this with old websites and microsites. The backend API continues to run even if the site is down.
Both shadow and zombie APIs create invisible entry points for attackers, and the impact has been clear. Over the last 12 months, API security incidents have doubled, with unauthenticated attackers responsible for 61% of attempts.
Bot Abuse and Automated Attacks
The issue with APIs is the scalability of attacks. Threat actors can deploy bots to do all the dirty work and automate specific attacks:
- Credential stuffing: Automated login attempts from stolen user names and passwords
- Data scraping: Pulling large amounts of data from API endpoints
- Denial of service (DoS) attacks: Overwhelming an API with requests or calls to shut down the system
Bot abuse has contributed significantly to the surge in malicious API activity. API traffic accounts for 71% of all web traffic. Last year, 46% of all Account Takeover (ATO) attacks targeted API endpoints.
Supply Chain Vulnerabilities
APIs bring businesses together to do more. An eCommerce clothing store might use a payment processing API to collect online payments. A Software as a Service (SaaS) product might integrate a CRM via API to collect customer data. Or a manufacturer’s ERP connecting with a warehouse system to monitor inventory.
The problem? This interconnectedness creates risks across the supply chain. One partner’s vulnerability is another’s data breach. And the impact is abundantly clear.
In 2024, third-party or vendor-related vulnerabilities accounted for 64% of major incidents.
Why MDR Buyers Can’t Afford to Ignore APIs
API security for MDR buyers must be part of the equation. Unmanaged APIs directly undermine the core MDR value proposition: Comprehensive threat detection and rapid response. And ignoring this surface leaves a critical gap for your business.
MDR Blind Spots Without API Coverage
Last year, 37% of organizations were victims of an API-related attack (up from 17% in 2023). Therefore, if your MDR provider focuses solely on endpoints and networks, it’s missing a significant channel of threat activity.
Attackers are aware of this gap. It’s how they pivot through APIs and exfiltrate data nearly undetected. Can’t analyze API traffic?
Then you’re blind to a primary attack path.
Impact on Compliance and Liability
API-targeted breaches don’t just mean lost data or down systems. They can trigger severe compliance penalties. Regulations such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and GDPR impose substantial fines on those who fail to protect personal and sensitive data.
And how would incidents and compliance violations impact your brand? It wouldn’t be a good look to potential customers. And that impact is reflected in the financial statements.
Retailers, for example, pay an average of $526,531 in fines, remediation, and lost profits due to API security breaches.
How MDR Enhances API Security
Point security solutions at the API endpoint or a gateway still leave you exposed. MDR, however, integrates API discovery and monitoring into a unified API threat detection strategy. This integration enables a rapid response if something is amiss and ensures that security teams do not overlook the attack vector.
API Enumeration and Discovery
The problem with API-only point security is that it only works on the APIs you know. But what about the undocumented shadow and zombie APIs?
MDR runs in-depth traffic analysis and integration scans for complete visibility. The platform enables you to create an inventory of your API ecosystem with integrations, calls, and other overlooked connections. Doing so helps eliminate the unknown.
Detecting Abnormal API Calls
Once you discover the hidden APIs, you can spot suspicious activity. MDR correlates API traffic. Teams apply security information and event management (SIEM) and extended detection & response (XDR) systems to establish a baseline for “normal.” From there, you can automatically flag anomalies.
Are there unusually large payloads or sequences of commands (which could indicate injection attacks)?
What about spikes in IP or user agents (which might be data scraping)? Or repeated authorization attempts (possibly credential stuffing)? Data access beyond the user’s normal permissions (account takeover)?
All this context turns simple traffic information into actionable intelligence.
Integration With Unified API Threat Detection
Don’t separate API data from other monitoring sources.
Modern MDR weaves it into the broader security workflow. It ensures that API, endpoint, network, identity, and cloud data work together as one. Unusual API calls with a suspicious endpoint login or unexpected connections to unknown servers might indicate a
looming threat.
MDR has become increasingly effective in comprehensive detection capabilities. It also demonstrates how quickly services can now identify threats. The median dwell time (the duration cyber actors spend intruding and lingering) decreased to 13 days in 2023.
That’s nearly half of what it was in years prior.
CyberMaxx’s Approach to API Security
API monitoring isn’t guaranteed in all MDRs. CyberMaxx includes API protection in its MDR and treats it as a foundational component of threat detection. It’s how we eliminate blind spots others overlook.
Unified Visibility Across Attack Surfaces
With security monitoring, we “take off the blinders.” API traffic is tracked and analyzed in the full context of endpoint, network, identity, and cloud activity.
Is an API suddenly receiving thousands of requests per minute from an endpoint across the world? Did the account making those requests receive excessive cloud storage permission in one change? The list goes on.
Connecting these dots reveals whether it’s an isolated anomaly or something more malicious.
Proactive Threat Response
CyberMax MDR doesn’t just alert; it takes action via zero-latency response.
Abnormal API behavior triggers our automated (but human-guided) response. Whether a credential stuffing surge, flood of API POST requests, or something more sinister, we investigate.
From there, threats are contained instantly and prevented from spiraling into a major incident. Reducing dwell time is the key to success. And that’s where we thrive.
Value for MDR Buyers
CyberMaxx treats APIs as first-class citizens, not afterthoughts. The hidden world of backend integrations means that API security for MDR buyers should be a top priority.
Our coverage extends to every corner of the modern attack surface —comprehensive threat monitoring with no blind spots.
Securing the Hidden World of API
APIs are no longer a secondary risk; they are the front line. Ignore them, and you undermine the entire security program, negating the value of your MDR investment.
CyberMaxx brings unity to your strategy. Our MDR offers visibility across APIs, endpoints, cloud, and identities with integrated response. Don’t let what you can’t see become your biggest breach.