APIs expand the attack surface: The rapid expansion of APIs across applications, cloud services, and digital supply chains has made them a prime target for attackers. With 84% of organizations experiencing API security incidents in the past year, it's clear that traditional security tools are no longer sufficient. Organizations need greater visibility into APIs and their risks, combined with security controls that are purpose-built for API threats.
Visibility is the cornerstone of API security: Organizations that lack a clear and continuous view of their API landscape cannot see unmanaged, forgotten APIs that aren’t properly secured. In addition, only 27% of enterprises with full API inventories know which APIs return sensitive data. Stronger API discovery and posture management capabilities can help.
Threat detection and mitigation capabilities made for securing APIs: Organizations also need deeper capabilities for detecting and addressing API abuse and attacks, including every threat detailed in the OWASP Top 10 API Security Risks. In this whitepaper, you’ll learn about 11 critical API security capabilities including:
Continuous API discovery and posture management
Visualization of API behavior including access to sensitive data
Uncovering API abuse attempts via context on user entities
Rigorous, real-time API testing focused on security
Continuous API discovery and posture management are essential because they ensure that you have a real-time, comprehensive inventory of all APIs in your environment – as well as a comprehensive analysis of their risks, including their exposure to sensitive data. This visibility is crucial for identifying and securing unmanaged APIs, such as zombie and shadow APIs, which can pose significant risks if left unchecked.
Visualization of API behavior helps security teams by providing a clear, actionable view of how APIs are being used or abused. It enables stakeholders from security, development, and operations to communicate effectively and investigate cases, ensuring that any suspicious activity is quickly identified and addressed.
Organizations can uncover and address API vulnerabilities early by adopting a shift-left approach to API testing in development. Core capabilities include running automated tests that simulate malicious traffic, including the types covered in the OWASP Top 10 API Security Risks.
An attacker confidence engine can use advanced machine learning algorithms trained to evaluate external and internal signals — including API behavior, network traffic patterns, geolocation data, threat intelligence feeds, and other contextual factors — to determine the confidence level that a detected runtime incident is the result of malicious activity.
