APIs have become a primary target because they handle the core functions and data behind digital services.
A web page is the interface people use to access a service. Behind that interface, APIs often handle:
- User login and authentication
- Account and customer data retrieval
- Product search and inventory checks
- Order creation and payment processing
- Content access and subscription management
- Connections between internal systems and third-party services
When attackers find a vulnerable API, they may be able to reach data or functions that are not exposed through the web interface. APIs are also easy to call at scale, allowing attackers to automate credential stuffing, data scraping, account takeover attempts, and high-volume abusive requests.
According to an Asia-Pacific API security study published by Akamai in 2026, organizations worldwide operate about 6,000 APIs on average, while the top 25 percent manage more than 29,000. The study also identified the pace of API growth outstripping security teams’ ability to manage them as a major source of risk.
That does not mean API attacks outnumber traditional web attacks in every environment. The ratio varies by research scope, industry, and traffic classification. Even so, multiple security studies point to the same trend: APIs are becoming a larger and more important part of the enterprise attack surface
API Security Incidents in 2026
Cloud data theft using compromised accounts and APIs
In May 2026, Microsoft disclosed a campaign in which a threat actor tracked as Storm-2949 used stolen credentials to gain access to cloud environments and exfiltrate large volumes of data from storage services.
Microsoft’s analysis found that the attackers used the compromised users’ privileges to reach cloud resources and data. The activity included access and data theft through Microsoft Graph API and web interfaces.
The initial intrusion was not caused by an API vulnerability. The case still matters because it shows how legitimate API calls can be used for data theft when they are paired with compromised identities and permissions.
API security therefore requires more than blocking known attack strings. Security teams need to evaluate several signals together, including authentication anomalies, automated access, malicious IP addresses, and malformed protocol requests.
Why AWS WAF Managed Rules matter in API security
APIs connect core digital services such as financial transactions, user authentication, payments, orders, and content delivery directly to business data. Attackers therefore spend more time probing API endpoints and using automated requests to exploit weak authentication and access controls.
The number and reach of APIs are also growing as organizations adopt mobile applications, SaaS platforms, microservices, and cloud infrastructure. This expands the attack surface that security teams must track and protect.
API security now extends well beyond vulnerability testing during development. Organizations need an application security program that can identify suspicious requests hitting production APIs, reflect new cyber threat intelligence in security policies, and stop attacks before they lead to a data breach.
What API security challenges do SMBs and enterprises share?
The scale may differ, but API teams at smaller businesses and large enterprises face many of the same operational problems.
Developing and maintaining detection rules in-house typically involves:
- Researching new vulnerabilities and active attack campaigns
- Analyzing malicious requests and payloads
- Designing detection logic
- Testing for false positives against legitimate traffic
- Deploying rules and monitoring them in production
- Updating rules as new attacks emerge
For SMBs with limited security staff and analysis resources, investigating and deploying new detection rules whenever a threat appears can become a significant burden.
Large enterprises face a different problem: they operate many applications, accounts, APIs, and business units, making it difficult to maintain the same security standard across services and validate every policy change.
Managed Rules available through AWS Marketplace can help reduce that operational load.
Is AWS WAF alone enough to protect APIs?
AWS WAF inspects HTTP and HTTPS requests sent to web applications and APIs, then allows or blocks them according to configured rules.
Deploying AWS WAF does not automatically detect every new attack.
The real question is whether an organization can choose the right rules for each application and threat type, configure those policies correctly, and keep them current as the cyber threat landscape changes.
API security depends on continuous operations, not a one-time deployment
API security cannot end with a one-time WAF deployment or a static rule set. Policies need to be updated as threats change, tested against legitimate traffic, and applied consistently across applications.
Cloudbric Managed Rules help organizations using AWS WAF address API attacks, bot traffic, malicious IP addresses, anonymizing networks, and common web application threats.
What is Cloudbric Managed Rules?
Cloudbric Managed Rules consists of seven security rule groups designed to address a range of web and API threats in AWS WAF environments.
The available rule groups are:
- API Protection
- Bot Protection
- Tor IP Protection
- OWASP Top 10 Protection
- Malicious IP Protection
- Anonymous IP Protection
- Protocol Validity Protection
Each rule group addresses a different attack path or risk signal.
Why use Cloudbric Managed Rules?
Cloudbric Managed Rules evaluates threats such as API attacks, bots, malicious IP addresses, Tor traffic, and malformed protocol requests from different angles. This supports a layered defense against web application attacks that are difficult to address with a single security policy.
For example, an attacker may hide behind Tor or an anonymous proxy and use a bot to send a large volume of abusive requests to an API. In that situation, combining API protection with bot detection, IP reputation, anonymizing-network controls, and protocol validation can provide broader coverage than API protection alone.
Using Managed Rules through AWS Marketplace can also reduce the need to build every detection rule from scratch and make it easier to add the required protections to an existing AWS WAF environment.
Learn more about Cloudbric Managed Rules at Link