February 20, 2026
API security is no longer just a technical discussion for developers. It’s a board-level issue. A regulatory issue. And increasingly, a frontline CISO priority.
In Episode 55 of ChatDPS, we unpack one of the most significant cybersecurity enforcement actions in Australia: ASIC’s successful case against Fig Securities, which resulted in a $2.5 million penalty for cybersecurity failures. It wasn’t just about missing controls. It was about governance, accountability, and whether security was embedded into the organisation’s architecture in the first place.
That’s the shift we’re seeing globally. Regulators are no longer asking, “Did you have a policy?” They’re asking, “Did your controls actually work?”
And this is where API security becomes central.
APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) power everything. Your accounting platform talks to your CRM. Your CRM connects to marketing automation. Finance tools connect directly to bank feeds. AI platforms plug into productivity suites.
What used to be simple one-to-one integrations has become an ecosystem — an interconnected web of APIs moving sensitive data across internal systems, third parties, and supply chains.
The problem? Attackers exploit trust.
APIs are designed to trust each other. That’s what makes them efficient. But when authentication, authorisation, or visibility is weak, that trust becomes the attack vector.
As discussed in the episode, 73% of CISOs are prioritising API security and API management as part of their forward-looking defence strategies. That’s not a trend — that’s a recognition that API sprawl has become one of the biggest blind spots in enterprise cybersecurity.
If you don’t know:
…you don’t truly understand your risk exposure.
One of the strongest themes from the episode was the tension CISOs face between compliance and proactive security.
Too many organisations treat cybersecurity as a checklist exercise. Meet the regulatory minimum. Pass the audit. Move on.
But regulatory enforcement is shifting the standard.
The ASIC action against Fig Securities demonstrates that it’s no longer enough to say you had controls on paper. Organisations must demonstrate that security is embedded — architecturally and operationally.
That means:
API security cannot be bolted on after deployment. It must be part of the design phase — especially as AI and LLM integrations accelerate the number of system-to-system connections.
Another major theme in the conversation was transparency.
Regulators, financial institutions, and critical infrastructure providers are increasingly demanding Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) from vendors. The message is simple: if you can’t explain what’s under the hood of your product, you may not get past supplier onboarding.
APIs are a critical part of that “under the skin” conversation.
Every API integration extends your attack surface. Every third-party API introduces inherited risk. Every federated identity connection expands your blast radius.
API security is now inseparable from:
If your APIs connect into external services, and those services are compromised, how far does the impact spread inside your environment?
That’s no longer a hypothetical scenario. That’s a board-level risk discussion
Layer AI on top of all of this, and the stakes increase dramatically.
AI systems depend heavily on APIs to gather data, trigger actions, and interact across environments. As agentic AI becomes more autonomous, APIs become execution pathways — not just data pathways.
If one of those integrations is compromised, the damage won’t remain contained.
This is why segmentation, zero trust architecture, and real-time monitoring are becoming essential components of modern API security strategies.
The conversation is no longer:
“Do we use APIs?”
It’s:
“How interconnected are they?”
“What happens if one is breached?”
“How do we reduce the blast radius?”
The underlying message from Episode 55 is clear: governance separates mature organisations from exposed ones.
Regulators are watching. Attackers are adapting. AI is lowering the barrier to entry for sophisticated attacks. And APIs are the connective tissue tying everything together.
Security leaders must move from reactive compliance to proactive risk management.
That means:
Because in today’s environment, cybersecurity failures are no longer just IT incidents — they are regulatory events.
And API security sits right at the centre of that reality.
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