API security tools protect information traveling through a company’s network via application programming interfaces (APIs). APIs serve a variety of purposes, such as adding functionality to applications, providing cloud services, and connecting networks. Companies use API security technologies to develop an inventory of existing API connections and ensure their security. These tools may additionally discover unknown or shadow APIs, which is a common scenario for companies using numerous APIs.
IT departments, software developers, and security professionals may use API security solutions to improve visibility for APIs, monitor their performance, and enforce strict security guidelines. As companies continuously discover new API connections, monitoring is key to ensuring optimum performance. Security enforcement is also important since many APIs contain sensitive data, which may turn into fines if left exposed. Lastly, many API security solutions include testing features. Testing APIs for security and policy enforcement may be the only way to verify an API’s security.
Some API management platforms provide tools to create an inventory of APIs connected to a network. However, this is only a feature-level functionality of the platform and will not provide substantial security functionality. It is not its most common use case.
To qualify for inclusion in the API Security Tools category, a product must:
Discover and inventory the APIs connected to a network, application, or system
Provide robust authentication mechanisms to restrict access to APIs and enable role-based access control (RBAC) to manage who can configure and modify API security settings
Ensure that the data being sent to the API is encrypted, safe, and valid, and mitigate common threats such as DDoS attacks, replay attacks, and man-in-the-middle attacks
Keep detailed logs of API access and activities to detect anomalies, monitor usage patterns, and support forensic investigations in case of security incidents
Have comprehensive analytics and reporting capabilities to gain insights into API usage, performance, and security posture
Perform security audits and vulnerability assessments to identify and address potential security risks
Allow for testing and policy enforcement for API connections
