Organizations are struggling with bad bots, broken APIs, and supply chain attacks

CAMPBELL, Calif., May 18, 2021  — 

Highlights:

  • On average, respondent organizations were successfully breached twice in the past 12 months as a direct result of an application vulnerability.
  • 44% of respondents say bot attacks contributed to a successful security breach that exploited a vulnerability in the organization’s applications in the last 12 months.
  • Respondents identified their top application security challenges as bad bots (43%), software supply chain attacks (39%), vulnerability detection (38%), and securing APIs (37%).

Barracuda, a trusted partner and leading provider of cloud-enabled security solutions, today released key findings from a report titled The state of application security in 2021. Commissioned by Barracuda, the research surveyed 750 application security decision makers responsible for their organization’s application development and security to get their perspectives on data breaches, top application security vulnerabilities, and the most important product capabilities needed to defend against multi-vector application attacks.

Read the full report: https://www.barracuda.com/appsec-report-2021

Overall, the findings indicate that more needs to be done to protect against application security threats, particularly newer threats like bot attacks, API attacks, and supply chain attacks. Highlights from the report include:

  • On average, respondent organizations were successfully breached twice in the past 12 months as a direct result of an application vulnerability.
  • 72% of respondents say their organization suffered at least one breach from an application vulnerability.
  • 32% say their organization suffered two breaches due to an applications vulnerability.
  • 14% were breached three times for due to application vulnerabilities.
  • The range of application security-related challenges facing organizations extends beyond difficulties securing multiple attack vectors.
    • Respondents identified their top application security challenges as bad bots (43%), software supply chain attacks (39%), vulnerability detection (38%), and securing APIs (37%).
  • Bot-based attacks are the most likely contributor to successful security breaches resulting from application vulnerabilities in the past 12 months.
    • 44% of respondents say bot attacks contributed to a successful security breach that exploited a vulnerability in the organization’s applications in the last 12 months.

“Applications have been steadily rising as one of the top attack vectors in recent years, and the rapid shift to remote work in 2020 only intensified this,” said Tim Jefferson, SVP, Engineering for Data, Networks and Application Security, Barracuda. “Organizations are struggling to keep up with the pace of these attacks, particularly newer threats like bot attacks, API attacks, and supply chain attacks, and they need help filling these gaps effectively.”

The survey, conducted by independent market researcher Vanson Bourne, includes responses from 750 application security decision makers responsible for their organization’s application development and security. They came from organizations in companies with 500 or more employees in the U.S., EMEA, and APAC.

Resources: 

Download the full report: https://www.barracuda.com/appsec-report-2021

Download Future shock: The cloud is the new network: https://www.barracuda.com/cloud-market

Download Secure SD-WAN: The launch pad into cloud: https://www.barracuda.com/sdwan-report-2020

Download Cloud networks: Shifting into hyperdrive: http://www.barracuda.com/sase-report

Read the blog post: http://cuda.co/46355

About Barracuda  

At Barracuda we strive to make the world a safer place. We believe every business deserves access to cloud-enabled, enterprise-grade security solutions that are easy to buy, deploy, and use. We protect email, networks, data and applications with innovative solutions that grow and adapt with our customers’ journey. More than 200,000 organizations worldwide trust Barracuda to protect them — in ways they may not even know they are at risk — so they can focus on taking their business to the next level. For more information, visit barracuda.com.

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