87% of Firms Report API Incidents with US$700K+ Costs as AI-Powered API Attacks Surge
Akamai's API Security Impact Survey finds 87% of respondents had API-related security incidents last year (up from 76% in 2022) with average costs over US$700,000 per incident. It reports 42% of professionals faced attacks on AI-powered APIs while only 23% of enterprises fully inventory APIs exposing sensitive data.
1. Rising API Incidents and Costs
The survey shows 87% of organizations experienced API-related security incidents in the past year, up from 76% in 2022, reporting an average of 3.5 incidents per organization with costs exceeding US$700,000 each.
2. AI-Powered API Attack Focus
Security teams rank AI technologies as their top priority, with 42% of respondents reporting attacks on APIs powering AI applications, agents and large language models over the past 12 months.
3. Visibility and Inventory Shortfalls
Only 23% of enterprises maintain a full API inventory exposing sensitive data—a drop from 40% in 2022—while just 53% have dedicated personnel responsible for API security.
4. Industry Variances and Costs
Nearly all financial services firms (96%) reported API attacks; energy and utilities incur the highest average incident cost at US$860,000, followed by manufacturing at US$732,000 and health and life sciences at US$725,000.