Enterprise-grade API security with Cequence Unified API Protection

Enterprise-grade API security with Cequence Unified API Protection

Organizations in most industries are optimizing their work by expanding the number of web, mobile, and cloud applications. This expansion leads to an increase in the number of APIs that interconnect the resources of these applications, thus amplifying security risks. However, as essential as APIs have become in modern technology ecosystems, they are overlooked in cybersecurity plans. While they understand the importance of securing APIs, many teams don’t have clear answers to the basic questions: how many APIs do they need to protect, where are they located, how frequently are applications and APIs attacked, what types of data are accessible through APIs, how sensitive is this information, and what are the real risks to the organization?

According to TechTarget’s report, „Securing the API Attack Surface”, the majority of companies surveyed (92%) have experienced at least one API-level security incident in the past 12 months. Moreover, organizations consider APIs to be the most vulnerable element of cloud-native infrastructure to attacks, and cybersecurity incidents facilitated by unsecured APIs were the most frequently reported in the context of cloud-native application development during the mentioned period.

API Security, a key element in the modern security architecture

Gartner anticipated as early as 2021 that APIs would become one of the most common attack vectors. Whether they are used for shopping, banking, communication or healthcare, on a daily basis, a user interacts, on average, with 10 applications connected via API.

For attackers, APIs are pathways to an organization’s data and processes, because they are often developed and deployed quickly by diverse teams, in a mix of on-premises and cloud infrastructures, which reduces visibility and security control. They fail to have a unified and complete perspective on the security of the APIs in their portfolio, they cannot detect and block attacks in real time to prevent major security breaches, data exfiltration and business interruptions.

Gartner’s prediction is also confirmed by a global study conducted by Traceable and the Ponemon Institute,
which shows that 60% of the 1,629 organizations surveyed have suffered an API breach in the last two years. However, public information about API-related incidents, especially technical details, is scarce because organizations don’t want to disclose critical information that could jeopardize their trade secrets or reputation. That’s why API vulnerabilities and incidents usually only become known when they cause major damage. For example, in 2022, attackers exploited a vulnerability in Twitter’s API security, exposing and subsequently selling the data of approximately 5.4 million users.

Other relevant aspects are:

• The rise of microservices-based architectures further complicates API security. Numerous interconnected microservices communicate through APIs, forming a complex web of potential vulnerabilities.
• API dependency. Cloud applications depend on APIs for data exchange. Security vulnerabilities at the API level can have far-reaching effects, affecting the security posture of the entire cloud ecosystem.
• Specific vulnerabilities. APIs come with unique security challenges that traditional web application security solutions fall short of. Attackers can more easily exploit API vulnerabilities inadequately addressed by generic security measures.

Cequence Unified API Protection, the complete solution for API protection

Cequence API Protection is the only unified API Security platform on the market that covers all stages of the API lifecycle. It ensures the discovery and inventory of all the organization’s APIs (both internal and external, as well as unmanaged/unknown) and the risk assessment of the APIs, by identifying critical security vulnerabilities that need to be remediated. It also provides real-time protection by detecting and blocking cyberattacks before they reach the organization’s applications. In addition, the Cequence solution ensures that the APIs comply with internal governance policies and regulations in place, while reducing the costs associated with cybersecurity.

Cequence Unified API Protection addresses API-level security through these three key functionalities:

• API Attack Surface Discovery. ensures the discovery of all APIs in an organization, even those that don’t trade data. It enables the discovery, classification and management of vulnerabilities, and provides alerting and monitoring, zero-touch discovery and real-time inventory, without the installation of additional software. Thus, API Spyder provides a complete picture of the organization, right from the attacker’s perspective.
• API Security Posture Management. API Sentinel enables API security posture management by assessing a wide range of risks, which can lead to compliance or governance issues, data loss, and business interruptions. Sentinel allows security teams to gain detailed insights into API usage. The APIs are tested according to OWASP (The Open Worldwide Application Security Project) Top 10, both before being used in production environments and during operation. Sentinel automatically identifies coding errors, vulnerabilities, and other deviations from API specifications. If specifications are not available, Sentinel generates API specifications without human intervention, eliminating hours or weeks of manual work.
• Bot Management and Fraud Prevention. API Spartan protects an organization’s web, mobile, and API applications against the full range of automated bot attacks, including business logic abuse attacks and fraud without code instrumentation. Spartan allows security teams to track attackers, regardless of their evasion-of-detection tactics. Once attacks are discovered, they are natively mitigated with API Spartan, eliminating the need to depend on a WAF (Web Application Firewall) or other external solutions that can’t handle the volume of attacks. Mitigation options include multiple techniques: blocking, limiting access, geo-fencing, logging, etc.

Cequence’s solutions are scalable and meet the requirements and needs of some of the largest organizations in the Fortune Global 500, managing more than 8 billion API interactions daily and protecting more than 3 billion users.