Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

For this Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we thought it important to draw attention to some of the most common and dangerous API vulnerabilities. This week, we’re starting with Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA). BOLA vulnerabilities top the OWASP API Top Ten. And for good reason: they’re startlingly prevalent, remarkably easy to exploit, and can have devastating consequences. So, let’s explore what they are, why they matter, and how you can mitigate them.

AJ Debole is Field CISO at Oracle, but her journey began far from the corporate boardroom. After starting out in law and government, she moved into healthcare and cyber defense, where she led teams through ransomware crises. In this spotlight, she explores the next wave of challenges – aligning security with business incentives, taming AI sprawl, and securing the APIs that connect it all.

APIs are a blessing and a curse. They’re the backbone of the modern internet. They also expose complex behaviors that are often poorly documented, stitched together across legacy and cloud systems, and updated faster than security teams can review. Three key groups typically shoulder the burden of protecting them: When these groups work in silos, gaps appear. Security becomes fragmented, reactive, and expensive to maintain. This is where Wallarm Security Edge comes in.

When we started Wallarm, we focused on the APIs that power modern apps. We built an API-first platform, used AI from day one, and secured early patents in behavior-based detection and automated policy creation. The result: real-time, inline blocking with automatic API discovery that protects production, not just dashboards. Today’s investment isn’t only fuel for innovation—it’s proof of enterprise recognition.

Throughout the past few years, APIs have become the backbone of digital infrastructure. They enable software-to-software communication, improve integration and interoperability, support modular architecture, and more. But as API use has exploded, so has API traffic volume and complexity, making them increasingly difficult to secure. And the rise of AI agents and automation have complicated matters further. The result? APIs have become a favourite attack vector for cybercriminals.

APIs are now the beating heart of digital infrastructure. But as they have risen in importance, they’ve also become prime targets for attackers. Complex, often poorly understood API behaviors present rich opportunities for exploitation, and too often, security teams are left scrambling to protect critical infrastructure with outdated tools or cumbersome deployments. Wallarm’s Security Edge is the answer to this problem.

API security has never been more crucial. Vulnerabilities are growing in volume and severity. AI integrations are a burgeoning attack vector. Increasing GraphQL adoption presents hidden dangers. To protect your organization, you must secure your APIs. Keep reading for our key takeaways from the Wallarm Q2 2025 API ThreatStats report – and find out what you need to do to protect yourself.

Unrestricted Resource Consumption (API4:2023) is the only threat category in the OWASP API Security Top 10 explicitly dedicated to Denial of Service (DoS) and resource abuse. But despite being just one category, attackers can exploit it in many different ways; from large file uploads and expensive GraphQL queries to abuse of metered third-party services like SMS gateways or AI/LLM APIs.

With innovation comes risk. As organizations race to build AI-first infrastructure, security is struggling to keep pace. Multi-Agentic Systems – those built on Large Language Models (LLMs) and Multi-Component Protocols (MCP) - bring immense potential, but also novel vulnerabilities that traditional tools weren’t designed to handle.

IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report offers one of the clearest and most comprehensive views yet of how AI adoption is shaping the security landscape. While breach numbers are relatively low – only 13% of organizations reported breaches involving AI models or applications – the report reveals a troubling pattern: APIs and integrations are often the real entry point, and they’re frequently under-secured. At Wallarm, we’ve been banging this drum for a while.