API Security Risks Grow as Authorisation Gaps Outpace Firewall Protections

APIs have become the dominant interface for mobile, partner, and internal systems, but their reliance on long-lived tokens rather than network-level protections creates an expanding attack surface. Security experts identify broken object-level authorisation and excessive data exposure as the two most prevalent failure patterns, both catalogued in the OWASP API Security Top 10. A notable 2021 Peloton incident illustrated the risk, where an unauthenticated endpoint exposed user profile data due to missing authorisation checks. Recent breaches at identity and data providers have similarly involved token theft and API misuse rather than traditional software vulnerabilities. Security practitioners recommend maintaining a live API inventory, enforcing per-request authorisation, minimising data returned by endpoints, and monitoring for enumeration patterns to reduce exposure.