APIs: Driving Innovation, Fueling Security Significance
APIs are the driving force of innovation within every organization, but not without a price. APIs enable the seamless connection between customers, vital data and services while allowing engineering teams to quickly iterate with better documentation thanks to standardization. APIs have an immense impact on business value with data standardization and machine compatibility. As they enable services to communicate with each other in a standard format, it leads to businesses experiencing faster innovation and time-to-market cycles.
That said, it should be no surprise that more organizations than ever are relying on APIs to fuel and power their activities and operations, multiplying in scale and scope. The flip side is that application security processes have not evolved at the same pace and can leave APIs untested for security vulnerabilities.
According to recent research, API attack traffic has more than doubled due to APIs being an effective attack vector currently yielding high results for threat actors. It is common for organizations to focus on API security only after the API has been shipped to production, leaving vulnerabilities undiscovered and creating a gap in protection—which is exactly what threat actors are looking for.
To address these risks, organizations need a comprehensive approach to API security that starts early in the development lifecycle and continues through to production. Here are the fundamental steps organizations can take to secure their APIs:
Building Security in the Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC)
As the saying goes, ‘the early bird gets the worm.’ This is exactly the case when it comes to API security. Early in the development process, teams should incorporate secure coding practices and testing mechanisms to ensure that all input is validated, authorization mechanisms are effective, authentication and password management are deployed and logging best practices are followed. Implementing these practices at the onset will help eliminate vulnerabilities at the source.
Secure the Infrastructure Behind Your APIs
In addition to securing the actual API code, organizations need to validate and secure the underlying infrastructure. This includes implementing strict access controls, hardening servers and databases, and regularly updating and patching systems. By ensuring the security of their infrastructure, in addition to the code, organizations can significantly reduce the risk of exploits.
Test, Test and Test Again
API security testing should occur during the same stages as code testing, like when unit and integration tests take place. If you run tests on a developer laptop, security tests should run there; if you run tests in CI/CD or a testing environment, security tests should run there. If a vulnerability is discovered and remediated at any stage, test again to ensure any potential exploits are resolved before pushing to production.
Monitoring APIs in production
There is no silver bullet to application security. Even with robust AppSec testing practices, organizations should always have sufficient monitoring to raise the alarm if any potential attacks and threats occur. Real-time security monitoring can help organizations detect and remediate any runtime exploits immediately.
All aspects, from development to production, offer opportunities to ensure APIs are secure and should not be understated. Collaborating with your security team to implement some of these tips will help create a secure, high-quality API development and deployment framework. Encouraging both functions to work together allows the security team to focus on guiding best practices and helping identify potential security risks before they become major issues while empowering the engineering team to secure their code while actively working on it.
By building security into the SDLC, securing the infrastructure behind the API, testing rigorously, and monitoring in real time, organizations can mitigate the risks associated with APIs and ensure that they can continue to innovate safely and securely.
