Get the New State of AI & API Security Report (H1 2026)

AI Agents Just Turned your Internal APIs into an External Risk Attack Surface.

APIs have exploded with Agentic AI and made internal APIs external.  No more edge. No contained risk. Your attack surface is now 100x larger.

Web apps

Mobile apps

Microservices

AI agents &
MCP servers

Industry

Securing the next era: why Agentic AI demands a new approach to Agentic Security

See what you’re missing in your environment.

Read: What is Agentic AI?

When AI agents take over, the edge goes blind

Agent-driven API traffic shifts inside the environment, leaving most activity invisible to edge-based security controls.

Before AI Agents there was internal and external API traffic to data sources but most of the traffic was external.

API Traffic Patterns

“East-west” traffic was largely 1:1 to data sources and was not seen by edge security solutions. The API traffic mix was 30% internal “east–west” and 70% external “north–south”

East–West Traffic: 30%

North–South Traffic: 70%

After AI Agents the traffic increased dramatically with most of the traffic now internal and not seen by edge solutions.

API Traffic Patterns

With AI agent deployments, the internal “east–west” traffic volumes explode significantly increasing risk and invisible to edge security solutions.

East–West Traffic: 80%

North–South Traffic: 20%

McDonald's

This is already
happening

In real incidents, AI agents exposed sensitive data through over-permissive APIs — not compromised models.

View details

Real-world example: McDonalds

The agent:

McDonald’s uses an AI chatbot called Olivia (Paradox.ai) to screen job applicants over text. Olivia asks shift preferences and guides candidates through applying.

The attack chain:

1. API vulnerability:
Watching the Agent's network traffic revealed a standard REST API call: PUT /api/lead/cem-xhr?lead_id=64185742

2. API breach:
Simply incrementing the lead_id (OWASP API1: BOLA) exposed 64 million applicant records.

The reality:

The AI model was secure. The Agent simply acted as a gateway to a vulnerable API.

Can you answer these questions about your AI agents?

Do you know every API your agents can access?
Do you know what actions they can perform?
Do you know what data they expose over time?
Can you govern API posture continuously?
Can you detect logic abuse when traffic is valid?

The agentic AI defense stack

01 External AI agent attack surface intelligence
.

See what attackers see. Identify exposed AI agent APIs and MCP endpoints including rogue, shadow, and misconfigured assets before adversaries do.

02 Unified visibility into API-driven AI assets and MCP servers
.

Continuously inventory API-driven AI assets. Discover AI agent APIs, MCP servers, and LLM integrations whether active, idle, or forgotten. Track usage, map dependencies, and understand your AI sprawl.

03 Govern posture compliance across your Agentic Security Graph
.

Enforce security and compliance across your API-driven AI infrastructure. Evaluate posture across AI agents, MCP servers, and LLM integrations and flag non-compliant APIs and misconfigured MCPs.

04 Detect & prevent AI misuse at the API layer
.

Stop threats before they escalate. Analyze API behavior in real time to detect misuse across AI agents, LLMs, and MCPs. Identify malicious consumption, data exfiltration, scanning, and adversarial discovery.

Security requires context across the entire Agentic Security Graph

What are the key AI Security use cases to solve?

Discover

Visibility

Public MCP server discovery

Visibility

Internal MCP & API inventory

Govern

Posture

MCP posture analysis

Capability

Map agent tools & actions

Protect

Data

Sensitive data flow & access

Attacks

Block data exfiltration & attacks

What sources provide the API context?

Salt Surface

Internet
(External Scan)

Salt Connect

Configuration
(Agentless)

Source Code
(Agentless)

Protect

Live Traffic
(Runtime)

Real-world impact

From Fortune 500s to fast-moving startups, security teams are using Salt to understand, govern, and defend their Agentic Security Graph.

Large tech company
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Global airline
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Thought leadership hub

What attackers see isn’t what you expect

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