How Businesses are impacted by API security vulnerabilities

Common Security threats on APIs

The trend of API-based attacks has grown significantly in recent years. These attacks are becoming increasingly common because they’re a path of least resistance for hackers to exploit – and they can be difficult to detect if your organization doesn’t have an adequate threat management process in place

The API attack surface is dynamic and evolving, with new threats discovered daily. It is essential to understand the common API attack types and be prepared by implementing security best practices to secure APIs and organization.

How Businesses are impacted by API security vulnerabilities

With rising API security risks, organizations are facing business challenges through new vulnerabilities every day, making it more important to inspect all APIs for potential security threats regularly. Below are some API security vulnerabilities that businesses overlook: -

In this issue

Organizations are now facing a new type of threat that uses Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) as a primary attack vector. These attacks are sophisticated and disruptive and have already spread across multiple industries like Financial services, retail, and Insurance.

According to a report from Gartner, this is the year that APIs will become the leading attack vector for enterprise web applications. As businesses continue to move more of their operations to the cloud and more data moves through APIs, we are seeing a big increase in API-based attacks.

In this newsletter we discuss about common security frameworks to protect APIs against different types of attacks, e.g., OWASP top 10 threats, DoS attacks, unauthorized access, masking confidential data and ensuring APIs cater to the needs of business.

The purpose of API security is to secure data in motion, which includes securing requests from the customer/Users, via the networks, reaching the server/backend, response preparation, and sending it back to the requesting client.

Best Practices to Prevent API Attacks

• Implement Multi-factor Authentication
• API Inventory for documentation review, testing, and protection
• Periodic Security Testing
• Promote Secure API Design and Development
• Logging and Monitoring
• Reduce Access to Sensitive Data

API Lifecycle management to prevent security flaws and risks

To manage the security of APIs, there are some recommended five phases of API lifecycle management:

Coforge Offering for API Security

Coforge has a well-defined process to protect from API security threats, as depicted below: