TL;DR
APIs are your new business perimeter. They power payments, onboarding, identity and partner integrations.
Risks stem from shadow APIs, weak authentication and authorisation, and business-logic abuse, with compliance exposure under GDPR, PCI DSS, DORA and NIS2.
Winning formula: Visibility (discover everything), Control (govern and protect), Compliance (prove and sustain).
Interoperability and integration with API gateways such as Kong, MuleSoft, Azure APIM, Apigee and F5.
How Sinevis helps leaders turn API risk into API resilience.
What is an API?
In today’s digital economy, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) have become the backbone of innovation, enabling seamless connectivity between banking systems, cloud apps, fintech platforms and customer experiences.
An API is simply the bridge that allows two systems to talk to each other, but when that bridge is left unguarded, it becomes an open invitation for attackers. Every mobile payment, identity verification or third-party integration relies on APIs, making them the new business perimeter. As fintech and digital services scale, APIs become the digital nervous system of the enterprise, accelerating growth while also expanding the attack surface.
Why should leaders care now?
APIs now carry most of the dynamic traffic on the web. Cloudflare measured API calls at 57% of the dynamic HTTP traffic it handled (2024 API Security and Management Report, January 2024), and Imperva reported that API traffic made up more than 71% of the web traffic it observed in 2023 (State of API Security in 2024, March 2024).
Attackers have followed the traffic. The Thales API Threat Report (September 2025), based on more than 4,000 Imperva customer environments, recorded over 40,000 API incidents in the first half of 2025. APIs represented only 14% of the attack surface yet attracted 44% of advanced bot traffic, and organisations typically had 10 to 20% more active APIs than they realised. The 2026 Thales Bad Bot Report (April 2026) found that 27% of bot attacks in 2025 targeted APIs.
Meanwhile, rapid delivery and microservices have outpaced governance, creating blind spots that attackers exploit.
For CEOs and CISOs, the implications are clear:
- Regulatory exposure under GDPR, PCI DSS v4.0.1 (all of whose requirements have been mandatory since 31 March 2025), DORA for EU financial entities and NIS2, with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 and NIST SP 800-228 as reference frameworks.
- Reputational damage from data leaks or disrupted transactions.
- Operational and compliance risks that can ripple across the business ecosystem.
You can’t protect what you can’t see, and you can’t prove compliance without sustained visibility and control.
The Three Pillars of API Security: Visibility, Control, Compliance.
Visibility
Discover every API across your environments: public, private, and shadow. Unknown APIs are unknown risks.
Control
Implement continuous monitoring, strong authentication, role-based access, and runtime protection to prevent business logic abuse.
Compliance
Align your API security controls with recognised standards such as the OWASP API Security Top 10 (2023), NIST SP 800-228 and ISO/IEC 27001 to ensure governance and resilience.
What Should Effective API Security Look Like?
Modern API protection is not just about firewalls; it’s about continuous assurance.
Platforms like Imperva (Thales) API Security deliver:
- Continuous discovery and classification of APIs, including public, private and shadow APIs
- Deep inspection of business logic and of the OWASP API Security Top 10 threats, such as broken object level authorisation (BOLA)
- Protection across hybrid, multi-cloud and containerised environments
Imperva API Security integrates with industry-leading API gateway platforms such as Kong, MuleSoft, Azure API Management (APIM), Apigee and F5, simplifying deployment and management. It inspects API traffic across environments through API gateways, proxies and load balancers, supporting both encrypted applications and microservices. This interoperability lets organisations maintain end-to-end visibility, regardless of where their APIs live or how they evolve, enabling agility, compliance and trust without compromising security.
The Sinevis Perspective
At Sinevis, we believe scalable cybersecurity begins with visibility and ends with trust.
As an authorised Thales service partner, delivering globally, our cybersecurity consulting services for API security are designed to help organisations:
☑ Map and classify all public and shadow APIs
☑ Detect vulnerabilities and policy violations in real time
☑ Implement runtime protection and compliance controls
☑ Integrate with platforms like Imperva API Security for unified visibility
We help CEOs, CISOs and boards transform API risk into API resilience, ensuring business continuity, regulatory confidence and customer trust.
APIs are no longer just technical connectors; they are at the core of the digital economy. Protecting them is a strategic business mandate, not only an IT decision.
Visibility. Control. Compliance. That’s the foundation of digital trust in today’s connected economy.
Book a consultation with Sinevis to assess and strengthen your API security posture. Contact us today.