C-Suiters, your APIs are your biggest digital asset—and threat. Here’s how to protect both.
APIs are becoming more key for companies to be successful in the modern age. A new Akamai survey showed that nearly all web traffic originates from APIs which is set to rise further in the years ahead.
The widespread use of APIs also presents a new risk of cyber security problems. According to Verizon’s report, almost half (40%) of data breaches in 2020 were connected to web applications and APIs. A data breach cost companies an average of $3.86 million in 2020, that’s why businesses need to focus on protecting their data.
Here is where the C-Suite takes on a bigger role. Because they lead their companies, C-Suite executives must protect their APIs from security risks. By following best security practices for APIs, companies can stop security issues and secure their important data.
Therefore, what are some key API security practices C-Suite members should understand? We shall find out together.
Establish a Comprehensive API Security Strategy
It is very important to protect your APIs with a detailed security plan. The plan should explain how to handle user and system access, encryption and API monitoring. In a recent Postman survey, only 39% of respondents in the API field said their organization has an official API security policy. Because of this, businesses need their leaders to implement an effective API security strategy.
Implement Proper Authentication and Authorization Mechanisms
Certain ways of checking login and permissions help stop people from using your APIs without authorization. Using authentication such as two-factor and OAuth will limit access to your APIs to authorized users. Akamai reports that the most used forms of authentication for APIs are API keys (57%) and OAuth (43%). Even so, this is not good enough. The need to occasionally assess and improve them arises to ensure security threats are addressed.
Monitor API Activity
Keeping an eye on API activity on a routine schedule helps you discover security threats early before they get serious. This is possible by adopting real-time safeguards, alerts and regular security reviews. Cisco says that it takes an average of 207 days to identify a security breach. For this reason, it is important to keep an eye on API use in real time, so any security risks can be spotted as soon as possible and their effects can be reduced.
Conduct Regular Security Assessments
Consistently reviewing the security of your APIs lets you find potential weaknesses. Among other steps, this might require testing and checking for security problems in your API. OWASP believes that since API security is important, it should be tested within the development stages and must include the security testing of both the API client and the server. By doing security audits periodically, companies can find and repair weaknesses before attackers use them.
Wrapping Up
If a company follows a strong API security strategy, makes authentication and authorization secure, watches API activity in real-time and conducts routine security checks, C-Suite executives can reduce risks from using API.
Staying aware of the newest API security trends is also very important for business leaders. Thus, they can prevent APIs in their organization from being compromised by new security dangers.
Taking API security for granted is not a good idea. If business leaders follow the best practices in this article, they increase their protection and minimize risks to the business, clients and company’s reputation.
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