You may never have heard the word “API”, but your business probably runs on them. Let’s explain what they are in two minutes — and why they need protecting.
Who it’s for
Business owners and managers whose products rely on apps or integrations
You’ll learn
- · What an API is
- · Why attackers target APIs
- · What good API security looks like
Reading time
6 min read
Why this matters to your business
Your APIs carry your most valuable data straight to anyone who asks the right way. Securing them protects customers, partners and your reputation.
APIs in one sentence
An API is how one piece of software asks another for data — your mobile app asking your server for a customer’s orders, or a partner pulling product prices. If your business has an app, it almost certainly has APIs.
Why they are a target
APIs return data directly, often in bulk, and are reachable from anywhere on the internet. A single weak check can expose far more data than a weak web page.
What “secure” looks like
Every request is authenticated, every user only reaches their own data, usage is rate-limited, and old API versions are switched off. Testing confirms these rules really hold.
Signs your APIs need attention
You have a mobile app, partners or integrations; your team is not sure how many APIs exist; old versions are still running; or the same API serves both customers and internal staff.
A good first step
Create an inventory: which APIs exist, who uses them, what data they return and who owns them. That alone often reveals forgotten endpoints worth testing first.
Jargon buster
- API
- How one piece of software asks another for data.
- Rate limit
- A cap on how many requests someone can make in a period.
- Authentication
- Checking who someone is, usually with a login or token.
How our team helps
- 01Discover and inventory your API endpoints
- 02Test access across users and roles
- 03Map results to the OWASP API Security Top 10
- 04Retest after fixes
- 05Help you build an API inventory
- 06Test REST, GraphQL and mobile APIs
- 07Prioritize the endpoints that return sensitive data
Not sure how many APIs you have? Most teams aren’t. Discovering them is our first step.
— The CRIS InfoTech security team