5 Questions to Ask your API Security Vendor

As more companies continue to rely on APIs for their day-to-day operations, the need for better API security practices has become more paramount. APIs allow organizations to interact with third-party services, streamline their operations and provide seamless user experience to consumers.

With their growing popularity, flexible access to sensitive data, and dynamic application functionality, APIs have increasingly become a popular target for attackers who intend to exploit known or unknown API vulnerabilities and gain unauthorized access to data considered sensitive or misuse of the API.  In a recent survey over 12 months, API attack traffic surged 117%, from an average of 12.22M malicious calls per month to 26.46M calls.

Thus, the need to adopt practices like authentication and authorization, data validation, auditing, and logging, using an API gateway management software, OAuth2, encryption, and outsourcing APIs to security vendors have become mainstream best practices for organizations looking to secure their APIs. These practices play individual and collective roles in ensuring APIs remain safe and highly functional.

API Security Vendor

APIs are changing the attack surface, and bad actors are changing their tactics so they can perform successful attacks.  A crop of new security software providers is targeting API security as their focus area. New defenses are needed to protect against these next-generation attacks.

API security vendors have become critical in ensuring businesses are safe from API security breaches. When selecting an API security vendor, it is essential to ask the right questions to ensure you get the best protection possible. Here are five questions to ask your API security vendor:

How does your API security solution work?

First, understand how the vendor’s API security solution works. A good vendor should be able to explain how their solution is designed to detect and prevent security breaches. They should be able to explain the key features of their solution, such as how it identifies and authenticates API requests, monitors API traffic, detects and responds to threats, and provides reporting and analytics.

Ensuring the vendor’s solution is compatible with your API architecture and can integrate seamlessly into your existing security infrastructure is essential. Ask for a demonstration of how their solution works in real-time and a trial period to test it in your environment.

How does your API security solution protect against common API vulnerabilities?

API security vulnerabilities are a common target for cybercriminals looking to exploit vulnerabilities in business operations. A good API security vendor should clearly understand the common API vulnerabilities and provide solutions to protect against them.

Examples of common API vulnerabilities include Injection attacks, Broken Object Level Authorization, Broken Function Level Authorization, Improper Error Handling, and Lack of Resources & Rate Limiting. Your vendor should be able to explain how their solution addresses each of these vulnerabilities and the measures they have put in place to ensure that their solution is up to date with the latest security threats.

What kind of customization is possible with your API security solution?

Every business has unique security requirements based on its API infrastructure and business operations. A good API security vendor should be able to offer solutions that can be customized to meet your specific needs. Ask about the extent to which the vendor’s solution can be tailored to fit your business operations.

Find out if they offer flexible pricing options based on the features you need, whether you can choose the level of monitoring and analysis you want, and whether their solution can be integrated with your existing security tools. You should also ask about the vendor’s process for handling customer requests and how they ensure that any customization complies with security regulations.

What kind of support do you offer?

API security is critical to the operation of your organization, and you need a vendor who can provide quick and effective support when issues arise. The vendor should provide:

24/7 support: API security incidents can occur anytime, and you need a vendor who can provide support around the clock.

A dedicated support team: You should have a dedicated team of experts who can quickly respond to any issues.

A support portal or knowledge base should provide resources and information to help you troubleshoot common issues.

How do you ensure compliance with industry regulations?

Compliance with industry regulations is critical for businesses that process sensitive data, such as financial or personal data. It is essential to ensure that the vendor’s API security solution meets the compliance standards for your industry.

Ask about the compliance standards that their solution adheres to, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). You should also ask how the vendor’s solution ensures compliance with other industry regulations and whether they have certifications or accreditations that validate their solution’s compliance.

Conclusion

Choosing the right API security vendor is critical to securing your organization’s APIs. By asking the right questions, you can ensure you know how the vendor’s API security solution works, protection against various attacks, customization to meet your unique needs, adherence to strict security regulations, and the type of customer support offered. Take the time to research and choose an API security vendor that will provide the level of security your organization requires.

About the Author: Musa is a certified Cybersecurity Analyst and Technical writer. He has experience working as a Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst and Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst (CTI) with a history of writing relevant cybersecurity content for organizations and spreading best security practices. He is a regular writer at Bora.

His other interests are Aviation, History, DevOps with Web3, and DevSecOps. In his free time, he enjoys burying himself in a book, watching anime, aviation documentaries, and sports, and playing video games.