Gartner predicted that Application Programming Interfaces (API) security abuses will be the most-frequent attack vector for enterprise web applications data breaches by 2022. Given the increasing data-centric approach adopted by organisations, there has been an increase in the exposure of ecosystems through SOAP or REST APIs. Organisations are struggling to protect their APIs as integration and interconnection grow with the digitalisation of networks.
In this article, we will learn the best practices that can be adopted when strengthening the API security for your organisation:
#1 Clear Authorisation And Authentication
Authentication is the first step towards API security. It is crucial to deploy robust measures that can verify the identity of the user or application trying to access the API service.
Next, authorise the resource of the users or applications that are trying to interact with the APIs. Organisations often use secret keys or API key authentication that can verify and grant access to every user wanting to enter via authenticated systems. They can restrict the movement of the user based on the authorisation granted. For example, a read-only user should not get access or permission to make changes in the APIs.
#2 API Monitoring
One of the most recommended REST API security best practices is to develop a vigorous monitoring practice. API security management solutions help the cyber team to monitor, audit and analyse the API traffic. Each authorisation is granted and user access is logged into the system and all activities are assessed. This enhances the visibility to detect attacks and errors in the networks. Any irregular activity such as the number of times a specific user or application uses it and the most popular activities or behaviour in the APIs can be flagged by the monitoring systems and reported for analysis. The security scanning tools can detect threats early and solve them before the extent of damage is magnified.
#3 System Protection With Quotas
Quotas assist in determining how often your API endpoints can be called. It sets a limit on the number of times the APIs can be exposed. This ensures that hackers are not able to make excessive calls to the APIs. Rate-limiting gives you a context of normal activities per minute and flags any abnormal number of requests. For example, set a limit that prohibits a user from calling an API more than 100 times per second or 1000 requests a day.
