API attacks surge as Indusface reports sharp rise in application-layer threats in India

DDoS and bot attacks surged in H1 2025, hitting 70% of sites and placing India among the top five global targets, with SMEs, insurance, manufacturing, retail, and healthcare sectors facing the steepest increases

Indian enterprises faced a significant spike in cyberattacks in the first half of 2025, with Indusface’s latest State of Application Security – India H1 2025 report revealing a 15% year-on-year increase in total threats. Over 4.26 billion attacks were blocked by Indusface’s AppTrana WAAP platform during the six-month period, averaging 4.1 million attacks per site.

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) emerged as the primary target, recording a staggering 126% rise in attacks compared to H1 2024. Vulnerability exploitation on APIs jumped 13-fold, while DDoS incidents on API hosts rose 388% per site. In total, 1.36 billion API attacks were blocked, highlighting the growing risk surface created by third-party integrations and sensitive data flows.

Custom security rules were responsible for stopping 62% of all threats, while the default rule set mitigated the remaining 38%, indicating a rise in sophisticated, targeted attacks that require tailored defenses.

Bot and DDoS attacks intensify across sectors

DDoS activity also spiked, with over 1.51 billion incidents blocked, affecting 70% of monitored sites. Meanwhile, 90% of websites were hit by bot attacks, totaling over 45 million events. India ranked among the top five global sources and targets for application-layer attacks, alongside the U.S., France, Singapore, and Germany.

Industries facing the sharpest increases included insurance (309% rise in total attacks), manufacturing (311%), and retail (420% DDoS surge). Healthcare saw a 247% increase in targeted attacks, with all monitored websites impacted by bots. Small and mid-sized enterprises bore the brunt, facing 74 times more API attacks and over 120 times higher DDoS incidents on APIs than large businesses.

Ashish Tandon, Founder and CEO of Indusface, emphasized the urgency of rapid response: “Attackers weaponize vulnerabilities within 48 hours. With AI, we’ve reduced the mean time to remediate from months to just days.”

AI and managed WAAP deliver business value

Indusface claims its customers are now generating thousands of zero-vulnerability reports with turnaround times as fast as 12 hours. Cost savings were also substantial—up to ₹21 lakhs annually in operational benefits, including reduced downtime, fewer penalties, and minimized internal resource strain.

As Indian regulators tighten oversight, the report urges organizations—especially SMEs—to adopt AI-powered, managed WAAP solutions for real-time protection, faster patching, and ongoing threat monitoring.