Combat Account Takeover Fraud with Real Time API Security

As the conversation unfolded, our panel shared how APIs can create security risks and what organizations can do to prevent API-based account takeovers. They emphasized that the digital attack surface has expanded exponentially due to the vast number of APIs now in use, and many organizations simply lack the visibility required for effective protection. To gain adequate visibility, our experts encouraged organizations to answer the following questions:

• What APIs exist in our environment?
• What resources can be accessed by those APIs?
• Who utilizes the APIs?
• What specific business vulnerabilities are exposed by those APIs?

To effectively battle API-enabled cyberthreats, organizations must figure out the best ways for their DevOps, InfoSec, and business teams to come together to implement protections before the bad actors succeed in their attempts to take over user accounts. An effective cybersecurity program requires a comprehensive strategy that includes the right tools and intelligence, a robust cross-functional plan, effective team collaboration, the ability to assess and measure progress and posture, and the confidence to honestly report to leadership and to the organization as a whole how the strategy is working.

To improve defenses, our experts recommend adding protections during application development and delivery and incorporating real-time monitoring following delivery, which allows teams to respond expeditiously before something terrible happens. This comprehensive, multi-layered approach allows for the scalable capture of a mix of multicloud network traffic and distributed application and API data while automatically discerning good versus bad behavior and activity.

Ultimately, API security boils down to getting the best visibility possible and having real-time runtime intelligence to handle each scenario properly.