Nearly 2,000 MCP servers on the internet are unsecure.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Yes, you read that right.

In their rush to connect AI models to live data, developers have inadvertently left the door wide open.

Researchers from Knostic scanned the web and found:

• 1,862 live MCP servers
  
• 0 had access controls
  
• Many exposed tools, databases, dashboards, and even legal case data publicly
  

One server even managed cost estimates for car repairs—wide open for anyone to see or manipulate.

This isn’t just an oversight.

It’s a pattern, and a worrying one.

As AI tools become easier to deploy, they’re also inviting users who haven’t yet learned the hard lessons of cybersecurity.

Why this matters:

– Attackers could potentially execute commands, exfiltrate data, or run up massive compute bills via “Denial of Wallet” attacks.
– The lack of defaults like authentication is turning convenience into a liability.
– Even when the protocol offers security options, very few use them.

The lesson?

Just because a tech is easy to use doesn’t mean it’s safe to use out of the box.

As a community, we must stop shipping insecure-by-default AI tools

As Knostic’s Heather Linn said:

“AI is experiencing natural growing pains. But this time, the barrier to entry is so low that people are skipping over security entirely.”

AI security can’t be an afterthought anymore. It’s time we ship AI with guardrails.

About “AI ML etc.”

We have reimagined AI education for senior IT professionals and specifically designed AI course for them.

If you have 10+ years of IT experience and would like to lead the next era of AI, our AI courses are for you!!

These courses are most up-to-date, (jargon & hype)-free, practical, end-to-end and short.

Learners from reputed organisations like Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, Meta, Aricent, Infosys, Maersk, Sapient, Oracle, TCS, Genpact, Airtel, Unilever, Vodafone, Jio, Sterlite, Vedanta, iDreamCareer and more have taken our courses and attended our lectures

Happy learning!

If you have any queries or suggestions, share them with me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhileshtayal/

Let’s learn to build a basic AI/ML model in 4 minutes (Part 1)

Are you ready to lead AI in your organisation? Take this 2 minutes quiz