During the past year, 17% of insurance companies and financial service firms had an application programming interface (API) related security breach, according to a survey from Salt Security, Inc., which found that 84% of API attacks against financial service and insurance businesses came from "authenticated" users that appeared legitimate but were not. Survey participants included 71 financial and insurance respondents and 120 chief information security officers (CISO). Additionally, 28% of respondents said they have no current API strategy, while 42% said they have little confidence in understanding which APIs could expose personally identifying information. Just 13% of respondents said they felt their API security was "advanced," Salt Security reported. However, the challenges aren't going unnoticed. Nearly 80% of CISO respondents said API security is a higher priority today than it was two years ago, while 76% said their organization is making it a priority for the coming two years. Around 13% said it will be a critical priority for the years to come. Further, 56% of financial and insurance respondents said API security is now a C-level issue. The above slideshow highlights five big takeaways from Salt Security's State of API Security report covering the financial services and insurance industries. "APIs are essential for the innovative digital services being delivered today by financial and insurance organizations," Roey Eliyahu, CEO and co-founder of Salt Security, said in a release. "However, because these APIs transport sensitive customer and financial information, cybercriminals also know they share a wealth of data that can be leveraged for theft or fraud." Related: |

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