5 Best Practices to Secure Your APIs Against Emerging Threats

Application programming interfaces (APIs) are widely used across industries to help businesses connect different kinds of software and make their operations smoother and more user-friendly. Their connections to critical business systems and access to sensitive client information make them a powerful tool—but also a huge target for hackers.

As threats to API security become more frequent and sophisticated, businesses need to be proactive and stay safe. Here are five API security solutions that will protect both you and your clients from these growing risks.

APIs as a Growing Target

Cybercriminals are becoming more skilled and creative in their attacks, and APIs have become an increasingly popular target. Tactics include hacking the API keys or session to access data, launching a DDoS attack to overrun and shut down the site, or redirecting customers to a fake API where they can steal sensitive information—just to name a few.

These breaches can result in devastating consequences for both customers and businesses, including lost or compromised data, downtime and the resulting lost sales, reputational damage, and compliance fines. In short, you can't afford to go without comprehensive API security solutions, so let's take a look at a few.

1. Implement Strong Authentication and Authorization

Ensure only authorized users have access to your APIs, and implement strong authentication procedures to enforce these regulations and keep hackers out. Systems that use tokens and unique identifiers, like OAuth, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), or API keys are especially secure.

Even once a user is authorized to access the API, it's wise to include fine-grained access control that limits what data and parts of the system they have access to. Methods like role-based access control (RBAC) and attribute-based access control (ABAC) are good API security solutions.

2. Enforce Rate Limiting and Throttling

To protect against bot and DDoS attacks, rate limiting and throttling control the number of transactions the API can handle or the amount of data included in each transaction.

Throttling will slow the connection or completely disconnect a user from the API if they violate the "rules" that have been established. This reduces the potential for fraud, misuse or abuse of the API, and overloading, all of which can lead to data loss and downtime.

3. Use API Gateways for Centralized Control

API gateways allow you to control the traffic between users and your actual programs and databases. It creates a single entry point for anyone trying to use the API so you can track usage, monitor for threats, and create security policies to control what kind of traffic you'll allow.

Beyond security, API gateways have the added benefits of efficient traffic routing, improved load balancing to distribute requests evenly across servers, and simplified scalability to meet growing user demands seamlessly.

4. Ensure End-to-End Encryption with TLS/SSL

Encrypting data is one of the key API security solutions because it ensures that sensitive information is protected from interception or tampering. All data associated with your APIs should be encrypted when it's at rest, but especially when it's moving between clients, servers, and programs.

Always use HTTPS encryption to create a secure connection between the user and your site, and stay up to date on the latest TLS encryption standards (i.e., TLS 1.3) so you can stay ahead of emerging vulnerabilities.

5. Regular Security Audits and Penetration Testing

API security solutions are all about being proactive and catching and protecting against threats before they become a full-fledged problem. With that in mind, make a habit of running security audits and other assessments to ensure your APIs are safe and secure. OWASP API Top 10 includes a list of the most common threats to APIs that you should scan for.

Penetration testing, which involves mimicking an actual attack to see how your systems react and identify any security gaps, is also essential. You can hire a professional IT company to run simulations of SQL injection, XSS, and other attacks to make sure your security is thorough and up to date.

Secure Your APIs with ICS

When it comes to API security solutions, you need the best. At ICS, each of our techs is an expert in their field, and we take pride in staying up to date on the latest threats, technologies, and protections so that we can keep your business safe. Send us a message to schedule an assessment or get started on cybersecurity for your APIs.