Six Ways to Mitigate API Security Risks

With the growing number and pace of microservice-based apps, businesses must take API security more seriously than ever before by implementing a development process that evaluates and applies security from beginning to end.

Fremont, CA: APIs are being utilized more than ever to connect services and move data, thanks to the explosive rise of microservices and the push to build more applications faster. On the other hand, APIs are becoming more difficult to protect as a growing number of smaller application "pieces" try to communicate with one another. When you include the pressure on developers to produce a lot, you've got yourself a prescription for a security nightmare.

Here are six ways to secure APIs:

Encrypt data

All data, particularly personally identifying information, should be encrypted using technology like Transport Layer Security (TLS). Developers should additionally demand signatures to verify that data is only decrypted and modified by authorized users.

Validate parameters

Validating parameters will aid in ensuring that incoming data is safe. All incoming data is checked against a tight schema that defines the system's allowable inputs under this framework.

Identify vulnerabilities

Knowing which stages of the API lifecycle are unsafe is the only way to adequately safeguard APIs. But this is more challenging than it sounds, especially as the company's API usage grows. It's critical to think about the entire API lifecycle because APIs must be treated as software artifacts in and of themselves, with a complete lifecycle that includes maintenance and retirement.

Develop a threat model

An organized technique to detecting and evaluating hazards is known as threat modeling. Threat models are best employed as a preventative strategy, but they should also be considered a continuous cycle for analyzing, mitigating, and minimizing application vulnerabilities in a controlled and automated manner.

Use rate limiting and throttling

As APIs become more popular, so does the bullseye on their backs. APIs, for instance, is a common target for DDoS assaults. Set rate limitations on how and how often your API can be called to prevent DDoS attacks, API spikes, and other performance and security issues. Connections can also be throttled via rate restriction, balancing access and availability.

Use tokens

Token use is a good API security best practice in general. Tokens granted to identities are a simple but efficient approach for developers to establish trustworthy identities and control access to services.