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Black Hat Fireside Chat: Doing deep-dive API security — as software gets developed and deployed

APIs have come to embody the yin and yang of our digital lives.

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Without application programming interface, all the cool digital services we take for granted would not be possible.

But it’s also true that the way software developers and companies have deployed APIs has contributed greatly to the exponential expansion of the cyber-attack surface. APIs have emerged as a go-to tool used by threat actors in all phases of sophisticated, multi-stage network attacks.

Upon gaining a toehold on a targeted device or server, attackers now quickly turn their attention to locating and manipulating available APIs to hook deeply into company systems. APIs provide paths to move laterally, to implant malware and to steal data.

Guest expert: Sudeep Padiyar, founding member, Traceable.ai

The encouraging news is that API security technology has advanced quite a bit over the past five years or so.

I had the chance at Black Hat 2022 to visit with Sudeep Padiyar, founding member and director of product management, at Traceable, a San Francisco-based supplier of advanced API security systems. Traceable launched in 2018, the brainchild of tech entrepreneurs Jyoti Bansal and Sanjay Nagaraj; it provides deep-dive API management capabilities — as software is being developed and while it is being used in the field.

We discussed the Gordian-knot challenge security teams face getting a grip on the avalanche of APIs hooking into their organizations. For a full drill down, please give the accompanying podcast a listen.

The security-proofing of APIs is gaining traction, and that’s a very good thing. I’ll keep watch and keep reporting.

Acohido

Pulitzer Prize-winning business journalist Byron V. Acohido is dedicated to fostering public awareness about how to make the Internet as private and secure as it ought to be.


(LW provides consulting services to the vendors we cover.)

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from The Last Watchdog authored by bacohido. Read the original post at: https://www.lastwatchdog.com/black-hat-fireside-chat-doing-deep-dive-api-security-as-software-gets-developed-and-deployed/