Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

In the fast-paced world of cybersecurity, every second counts. When an API attack occurs, the speed at which your security team can detect, understand, and respond to the threat can mean the difference between a minor incident and a major data breach. This is where Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR) comes into play. MTTR is a key performance indicator (KPI) that measures the average time it takes to resolve a security incident, from the moment it's detected to the point where it's fully mitigated.

Securing your API ecosystem is increasingly complex, leaving organizations unsure where to begin. Gartner's 2024 Market Guide for API Protection offers clear guidance: Understanding your API attack surface and prioritizing your security efforts is crucial. Once you have visibility into your API landscape, you can implement appropriate security measures to protect your APIs from abuse and access violations.

Hello, My name is Chen, and I work as a threat intelligence analyst at Salt Security. Every day, I dive into the complex world of cybersecurity, uncovering the hidden threats that hide in our digital lives. Today, I'd like to take you on a journey through the evolving landscape of API threats. APIs are the quiet helpers of the digital world, allowing software applications to communicate easily with each other.

The prevalence of APIs in today's digital environment is undeniable. They are crucial for modern applications, enabling seamless communication and data exchange between different software components. The rise of AI and machine learning has further accelerated API adoption, not only for accessing data and resources but also for rapid API development and deployment.

The API security landscape is changing rapidly, and cybercriminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated. According to the Salt Labs State of API Security Report 2024, API security incidents have more than doubled in the past 12 months, while API usage is rapidly increasing. Organizations are finding it challenging to keep up with the threats associated with expanding API ecosystems and fully understand their complex behavioral attributes.

As noted in the 2024 Gartner Market Guide for API Protection“API security governance is an emerging capability. It allows the administrator of the tool to define and enforce security policies. Unlike posture management, this is a top-down enforcement. It also allows for compliance reports for specific regulations to be generated automatically.” This capability is becoming increasingly important as organizations face a constantly evolving threat landscape.

APIs are essential for modern applications as they enable seamless communication and data exchange, serving as the foundation of these applications. However, their interconnected nature makes them vulnerable to various threats. The high volume of API calls - ranging from millions to billions every month - poses a challenge in distinguishing between genuine attacks and harmless irregularities.

APIs are increasingly becoming the target of choice for attackers. According to the key findings stated in the 2024 Gartner Market Guide for API Protection, "APIs — especially shadow and dormant ones — are causing data breaches among organizations that, on average, exceed the magnitude of other breaches.

Cross-site scripting (aka XSS) has rightfully claimed its place as one of the most popular web vulnerabilities. Since its first emergence, somewhere in the dark days of the internet, countless vulnerabilities have been found across websites everywhere. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that XSS has been consistently highlighted as a top risk in the OWASP TOP-10 since the list's very first iteration in 2004!