<ul data-eligibleForWebStory="true">APIs play a crucial role in modern software ecosystems, but poorly secured APIs pose significant risks.Security gaps like weak authentication, insufficient authorization, injection attacks, and data exposure are common.Best practices include strong authentication, encryption, input validation, rate limiting, and security testing.Properly configuring CORS, adopting security headers, logging and monitoring, and securing the entire SDLC are vital.Addressing these security gaps is essential to protect businesses from costly incidents and reputational damage.