As digital transformation takes hold and businesses increasingly rely on digital services, securing applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) is more important than ever. That said, application security and API security are two key components of her comprehensive security strategy. By leveraging these practices, organizations can protect themselves from malicious attacks and security threats, and most importantly, keep their data safe.
Interestingly, despite the obvious benefits these areas offer, enterprises struggle to understand which security approach best fits their needs. This article explains the differences between application and API security, best practices to consider, and ultimately why you need both.
What is application security?
Application security, better known as AppSec, is a critical aspect of any organization’s cybersecurity strategy. Application security uses techniques such as authentication and authorization, encryption, access control, and secure coding techniques to help protect data and systems from unauthorized access, modification, or data destruction.
The benefits of application security are many. It helps protect sensitive data from theft and misuse, reduces the risk of data breaches, and ensures your applications comply with industry regulations. In addition, application security helps organizations reduce the costs associated with responding to security incidents by providing proactive means to reduce the risk of successful attacks. Finally, you can also improve customer trust by providing a safe environment for them to interact with your business.
According to ISACA, the five main components of an application security program are:
- Security by design
- Testing secure code
- Software bill of materials
- Security training and awareness
- WAF and API security gateway and rule development
In the next section, we’ll look at how API security fits into this framework and where we still need to address.
Comparing Application Security and API Security
Although often used synonymously, AppSec and API security are very different areas. API security helps protect APIs from unauthorized access, misuse, and abuse. It also helps protect against malicious attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other types of attacks. By implementing proper API security measures, organizations can keep their applications secure and protected from potential threats.
As you can see, protecting APIs is a key aspect of a good application security strategy. But let’s be clear: API security is very different from “traditional” application security and requires special consideration. AppSec focuses on protecting the entire application, while API security focuses on protecting the APIs that modern applications use to connect and exchange data.
The biggest difference between APIs and applications is the impact each has on the user. APIs are intended for use by software applications, but the software applications themselves are intended for human use. This means that different security controls are required. Now that we’ve settled the issue, let’s dig into how API security is built into 4 of AppSec’s 5 main components, and where we still need help.
Security by design
The core idea here is “think security at the architecture and design level before writing or compiling source code”. ISACA further states: security control. ”
With that in mind, in their 2022 Hype Cycle for Application Security, Gartner states, “Traditional network and web protection tools are the most effective tools that APIs face, including many described in the OWASP API Security Top 10. It does not protect against all security threats.” This shows that developers and security professionals must consider the unique nuances of API protection in their cybersecurity strategy.
Download the details to find out all the factors to consider when securing your APIs. API Security Buyer’s Guide.
Testing secure code
As you can imagine, application security testing (AST) and API security testing are different disciplines. Although the ultimate goal of securing the software development lifecycle (SDLC) is the same, the approach is fundamentally different. ISACA recommends pursuing traditional security testing methods such as static application security testing (SAST) and dynamic application security testing (DAST). We also recommend supplementing AppSec testing with penetration testing. The problem here is that the API requires additional testing that these techniques do not address.
According to Gartner, “Traditional AST tools — SAST, DAST, and interactive AST (IAST) — were not originally designed to test vulnerabilities associated with typical attacks against attacks.
APIs. They continue, “We are looking at a combination of traditional tools (such as static AST) to identify the best approach to API testing. [SAST] and dynamic AST [DAST]) and a new solution specifically focused on API requirements. A good example to illustrate the rationale is discovering individual endpoints and correlating CRUD operations according to authentication/authorization. This is something SAST tools cannot easily do.
To learn more about the key differences Gartner claims, download our new eBook. API security testing for everyone.
Security training and awareness
According to ISACA, “All developers are required to have minimal training on the Open Worldwide Application Security Project Top 10 list (OWASP Top 10).” However, this list of web application risks is only a piece of the puzzle. OWASP established his OWASP API Security Top 10 due to API-specific vulnerabilities and rising API-related security breaches. This list addresses the most pressing API threats facing organizations. That said, it’s important for developers to follow both lists to protect their applications and APIs.
Learn how to defend against these critical vulnerabilities in our eBook. OWASP Top 10 API Security Threat Mitigation.
WAF and API security gateway and rule development
There is no denying that both API gateways and web application firewalls (WAFs) are important components of the API delivery stack. In all honesty, neither was designed to give you the security controls and observability you need to properly secure your APIs. And organizations are realizing the false sense of security they thought a WAF or API gateway alone could keep their APIs secure.
The reality is that you need a dedicated API security platform to discover APIs, assess their security posture, and monitor for unusual network traffic and usage patterns. Otherwise, you’re just fooling yourself into thinking your API is safe from cyberattacks. If you want to see how these legacy tools fit on dedicated platforms, check out this comparison page.
How Noname Security Provides Comprehensive API Protection
Noname Security is the only company taking a complete and proactive approach to API security. Noname works with 20% of the Fortune 500 and covers the entire API security scope (discovery, posture management, runtime protection, API security testing).
With Noname Security, you can monitor API traffic in real time to uncover insights into data exfiltration, data tampering, data policy violations, suspicious behavior, and API security attacks. We also provide a suite of over 150 custom-built API security tests based on years of enterprise-grade API security experience, rather than relying on generalized approaches such as fuzzing. A set of tests can be run on demand or as part of a CI/CD pipeline.
To learn more about Noname Security and how it protects your API assets, visit nonamesecurity.com.
