The UAE Government API First Guidelines are a comprehensive framework designed to standardize API development and management across government entities, promoting innovation, interoperability, and secure data exchange. These guidelines emphasize an API-first approach to digital transformation, focusing on principles like consumer-centric design, robust security measures, lifecycle management, and seamless integration.

Since 2015, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has introduced several cybersecurity and cyber resilience frameworks to address evolving cybersecurity risks and strengthen the resilience of regulated entities (REs). Additionally, SEBI has issued multiple advisories on best practices to guide REs in enhancing their cybersecurity posture.

In today’s rapidly interconnected digital environment, third-party APIs have become fundamental for enhancing functionality and enriching user experiences. However, as seen in recent incidents like the Kaiser data breach, these third-party integrations carry risks that, if unaddressed, can lead to significant security and privacy violations.

APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) have become the backbone of modern digital ecosystems, enabling seamless integration and data exchange between a wide array of applications and services. From ordering meals through food delivery apps to accessing real-time weather updates, APIs underpin countless daily interactions. However, the very attributes that make APIs so indispensable – their ubiquity and high functionality – also render them appealing targets for malicious actors.

Digital transformation has resulted into an API-first economy where every organization is integrating deeper with customers, partners & suppliers. APIs are the gateways powering this integration. As per a Kong report in 2023, APIs will have a projected global economic impact of $14.2 trillion by 2027 – that’s more than the GDP of the UK, Japan, France, and Australia combined. As APIs drive growth, every organization will need to implement robust security systems in place for their APIs.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Council created PCI DSS as the global standard for protecting payment data. The PCI DSS is the compliance stick to which entities that transmit, store, handle, or accept credit card data of any size must adhere. Recently, PCI DSS came up with version 4.0. In this blog, we delve deeper into the new version and explain why securing APIs is critical for PCI DSS compliance and how organizations can do so.

The Gartner research paper “What You Need to Do to Protect Your APIs” outlines key requirements for bolstering API security measures. In this blog post, we’ll delve deeper into these requirements as introduced by Gartner, explain their significance, and demonstrate how AppSentinels offers comprehensive solutions for each requirement. As per Gartner, the second step is to assess the security of these APIs.

The Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory to warn vendors, designers, and developers of web applications and organizations using web applications about Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) vulnerabilities.

Back in 2019, OWASP released its first API Top-10 list. It quickly gained widespread acceptance and acknowledgment from the industry about the challenges faced in protecting APIs. Since then, growth in APIs has continued, and the threat landscape also evolved rapidly. OWASP has released an updated API Top 10 2023 with quite a few changes from 2019 to address the changes and provide new insights and recommendations.

APIs were already ubiquitous in driving modern applications. However, the pandemic has further accelerated growth in innovation and expansion of digital services, making APIs even more widespread. In today’s world, rapid innovation would not be possible without secure APIs. Attacks on APIs are increasing exponentially. Gartner suggests API abuses are the most significant attack vector since 2022. Hence securing APIs is more critical than ever in the past.