Thinking which API Security tool to buy, but don’t know where to start? Let’s see the points to consider while you are making a decision. 

But first, let’s see what API is. The application programming interface is commonly known as API. It facilitates the exchange of information between various apps in accordance with a set of rules. Sensitive data may be exposed to malicious actors because of an API security breach.

API is a general-purpose language that is utilized by many applications. For instance, the fact that WordPress uses the Twitter API makes it possible for you to add your Twitter handle to the sidebar of your site without using any code. The APIs have been utilized by programmers, developers, and their clients for several decades and are here to stay.

Tens of thousands of APIs are made available online every year. A new study predicts that by 2025, the global market for cloud APIs would be worth US$ 1,424 million. One of the major elements driving the expansion of the API industry has been the quickening pace of cloud adoption. Over time, APIs have taken over as the primary language of enterprise interaction. The popularity of APIs is constantly growing, and with that growth comes new security risks.

HOW CAN WE SECURE APIs

The security of web-based APIs is a part of web API security. Since these APIs rely on web technology, API developers frequently run across security flaws present on the public Internet. Online APIs are unfortunately extremely vulnerable to assaults, even if most of the common dangers present in web applications also apply to them.

Web APIs show how a computing system is implemented, increasing the attack surface. Web APIs, as opposed to web apps, give users a lot more control and granularity over the data they can access.

Both SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and REST (Representational State Transfer) are commonly used to build web service APIs. Although SOAP is widely used in enterprise API environments where security is prioritized, it is losing ground to the cutting-edge and user-friendly REST architectural pattern for the creation of web services.

REST and SOAP both make data available via HTTP queries and responses, but their operations rely on fundamentally distinct semantics and formats. Because of this, you ought to tackle their security concerns uniquely.

It is possible to apply strict API security regulations and reduce the dangers to APIs’ ideal performance. Implementing thorough API security frameworks can protect against most attacks that can take advantage of API flaws, even though the controls and techniques used may vary depending on the situation.

While there are many similarities between the principles governing network security and API security mechanisms, not all of them can be solved with a one-size-fits-all approach. As was already mentioned, APIs differ fundamentally.

Since they provide programmatic access to services and data, APIs are by design more transparent. They are more appealing to hacking assaults because of their transparency, which is emphasized in the API description. 

As a result, since APIs have different risk concerns than other web resources, you should use additional API security standards. Businesses that rely entirely on conventional network security measures to protect their APIs shouldn’t be surprised if they are breached.As mentioned above, there are two important types of APIs:

• SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) 
• REST (Representational State Transfer)

SOAP API:

SOAP is a protocol that uses HTTP as the data transmission medium and XML to encrypt data. Interoperability between computing systems is provided via SOAP, a standard protocol. Client applications can call remote methods on a service using the SOAP API. 

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a standard communication protocol that facilitates the transmission of data in this format. The addressing of security concerns in transactional interactions is handled via built-in protocols known as Web Services Security (WS Security) in SOAP Application Programming Interfaces. 

Two widely respected standards bodies, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) have established security rules that are supported by SOAP APIs (OASIS). To increase the security of the data being given and received, these APIs typically combine SAML tokens, XML-Signature, and XML-Encryption. 

When compared to using other API implementations, SOAP has additional overhead because of its built-in standards and kind of transport method. However, SOAP adoption may be advantageous for businesses that deal with sensitive data.

REST API:

Data interaction between computing systems over the Internet is outlined in a set of software architectural principles known as REST. REST is not a protocol in the traditional sense, unlike SOAP. REST APIs provide Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption in addition to HTTP. TLS is a protocol that guarantees that data transmitted between two systems remains unmodified and encrypted while maintaining the privacy of communications via Internet connections. An attacker seeking to access your sensitive information from a website cannot read or change it if the website is secured using TLS (whose URL begins with “HTTPS”—Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure). 

REST provides a variety of data formats, including JSON, XML, and HTML, in contrast to SOAP, which only supports one. Data can be transferred over the Internet more easily when using a less complex file format, like JSON. REST APIs are much faster than SOAP APIs since they use HTTP and JSON, which eliminates the need for data repackaging or storage. 

It’s crucial to keep in mind that REST does not adhere to the same strict security rules as SOAP. REST doesn’t have any built-in security features; instead, it focuses on the deliverability and consumption of data. 

As a result, instead of trusting that security measures are included out of the box when developing an API using REST, you need to make an effort to incorporate adequate levels of security into the coding and deployment process.

Best Practices to Keep in Mind while Securing your APIs:

1. Authentication and Authorization
   Any API security policy should include strong authentication and authorisation measures as a mandatory component. The first step in gaining access to an API service is authentication, which confirms the user’s or application’s identity. The resources that the authenticated user or programme can interact with are determined by authorization, which comes next. In other words, whereas authorization defines what you may do, authentication confirms who you are.
2. API Monitoring
   You may control who gets access to your API using authentication and permission. How about tracking, verifying, and examining your API traffic? You must have an API security management system that enables you to monitor the usage and activity of your API. With improved API visibility, you can monitor API usage against expected patterns, evaluate excessive error activity, and spot attacks based on unusual behaviors.
3. Usage of Quotas and Rate-Limiting
   Enforce restrictions and rate-limiting to increase API security levels. Quotas will help you choose how frequently your API endpoints can be called. If restrictions are not put in place, hackers may make a lot of calls, crash your API service, and lock out legitimate users. Receiving thousands of requests per second should raise a red flag if a typical user makes one or two queries per minute. Such a deviation from regular behavior in API security practices is a sign of neglect.
4.  Complete API Life Cycle

Security for APIs shouldn’t be treated as an afterthought. Instead, it ought to be incorporated into the entire process of developing APIs. It might be challenging to keep your APIs secure without a comprehensive, policy-focused strategy. Using a collection of dispersed toolkits is likely to result in gaps and leave your services open to danger. The entire API life cycle should be covered by systematic security standards that control APIs. Your team should consider potential security concerns before designing to avoid them after the API is developed and implemented.

5. Practicing User Education
To avoid unwanted infiltration, user education on fundamental API security measures is vital. Your API users can develop a security-aware culture by receiving enough education, which will stop malicious actors from exploiting their gullibility and inexperience to obtain sensitive data quickly. Users can exercise caution before taking any action if they are taught the fundamentals of API security. By doing background checks, they can learn how to confirm the legitimacy of messages like emails posing as coming from a reliable API provider.

6. API GatewaysThe primary point of enforcement for API traffic is an API gateway. Organizations can authenticate traffic, as well as manage and monitor API usage, with the help of a reliable gateway. To give the user a more streamlined experience, an API gateway organizes the requests being handled by the microservices architecture. In order to cut down on the number of journeys back and forth between the client and application, it acts as a translator, taking a customer’s several requests and condensing them into just one. Before the microservices, an API gateway is installed, serving as the starting point for each new request the app makes. Both the client implementations and the microservices application are made simpler by it.

7. Data EncryptionThe following cannot be emphasized enough or more frequently: Utilizing a technique like Transport Layer Security (TLS), all data should be encrypted, especially personally sensitive information. To guarantee that only authorized users are decrypting and editing data, developers should also demand signatures. Since REST APIs employ HTTP, encryption can be accomplished by using the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol or its earlier iteration, the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol.

8. Threat Model
A methodical way to detect and assess hazards is threat modeling. Threat models are most effective when utilized as a preventative strategy, but they should also be seen as a continuous cycle for automatically but carefully identifying, mitigating, and preventing application vulnerabilities.

9. Service Mesh

Service mesh technology offers an additional layer of management and control as it passes requests from one service to the next, similar to how API gateways do. A service mesh optimizes the interaction of all of these moving pieces, including the implementation of appropriate authentication, access control, and other security mechanisms.

API DESIGN 

The collection of planning and architectural choices you make when creating an API is known as the API design. Your fundamental API architecture has an impact on how well developers can use it and even how well they can consume it. Similar to how a website or product is designed, an API’s design influences the user experience. Good API design principles live up to early expectations and keep behaving predictably and consistently. 

Designing an API entails creating a user interface that is both efficient for you to maintain and beneficial for your API’s users to better understand, use, and integrate with. Your API is no different from other products in need of a user guide. Designing APIs should include:

• The placement of resources
• The specifications of resources

Creating a great API Design helps you with: 

• Better Implementation
  Implementation can be substantially aided by a well-thought-out API design, which can also greatly reduce the need for complex configurations, naming convention observance inside classes, and a variety of other problems that can keep you up for days.

• Incremental development

Both your API and your products and services should develop over time. A clear design makes it easier for your team and organization to identify which resource, or sub-resources, need to be updated, which reduces confusion and mayhem. It might be more challenging to administer an API as it grows. 

• Better Documentation
  Your API should evolve over time, just like your products and services should. A clean design lowers confusion and mayhem by making it simpler for your team and organization to determine which resource, or sub-resources, need to be updated. With increased API size, administration may become more difficult. Developers can save time and effort by precisely identifying which resources need to be upgraded and which ones can be retired with the help of a well-designed API.
• Improves Developer Experience
  If you’re a developer, there’s a good chance you’ve had to work with a service that made you want to smash your computer and integrate with it. The life of the end developer is made simple by an effective API design. The individuals who use your API will have an excellent working experience with it since it is simple to comprehend, has all the resources arranged properly, is enjoyable to interact with, and is attractive.

Software development kits (SDKs) facilitate the creation of applications for a given system, platform, or programming language. Consider it to be somewhat like a toolbox or the plastic tool bag that is delivered with the pieces of a dresser you purchased to assemble yourself, but specifically for the creation of apps. You have the necessary “building blocks” or “development tools,” however what is provided in the kit varies from one manufacturer to the next. It is made up of different parts, such as compilers, debuggers, and APIs. 

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Besides, APIs are a great technology that enable businesses to build dynamic, future-focused applications. However, they can have a double-edged effect, promising to increase an application’s functionality while also creating significant security risks. 

Nevertheless, with the right techniques and policies, these risks may be reduced, ensuring that businesses can profit from this significant technical advancement with assurance and peace of mind.

 So, choose wisely when selecting the security tool!

Also Read: Top Reasons Why Cybersecurity is a Good Investment