Half of Security Leaders Have Experienced an API Breach

Read full article here: https://corsha.com/blog/corsha-api-secrets-management-survey-report-blog/?source=nhimg

APIs have become mission-critical for modern enterprises and also one of their greatest security liabilities. Corsha’s State of API Secrets Management Report, 2023 surveyed more than 400 security and engineering professionals to understand how teams are managing API secrets today. The findings confirm what many already fear: static credentials and traditional secrets management practices aren’t enough to keep pace with the expanding attack surface.

Key Findings

• API Breaches Are Widespread - 53% of respondents have already experienced a data breach tied to compromised API secrets. The other half admit they’re worried they’ll be next.

• Heavy Operational Burden - 86% of security teams spend up to 15 hours per week just provisioning, rotating, and managing secrets, time pulled away from innovation and strategy.

• Credential Sprawl Is Real - 42% of teams juggle up to 250+ API keys, tokens, or certificates across their environments, a scale that makes manual oversight nearly impossible.

• Secrets Managers Aren’t Enough - While 72% use a secrets manager, 56% remain concerned about breaches, showing that hygiene alone doesn’t equal true security.

Why It Matters

Static credentials have become a prime attack vector, contributing to more than 60% of cloud-related breaches according to IBM’s 2024 data. As breaches like Twitter, Dropbox, and Uber have shown, static API keys, hardcoded secrets, and long-lived tokens are an open door for attackers.

The Path Forward

Corsha’s research makes clear that the next era of API security requires:

• Dynamic, machine-to-machine MFA to replace static credentials.
• Context-aware verification on every API call.
• Policy-driven, ephemeral identities that eliminate standing privilege.

In short: “Good” secrets management isn’t enough. Secure API ecosystems require continuous, identity-first authentication for machines.