Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

An application’s attack surface is the sum of all the areas of an application which could be attacked by malicious attackers. This includes the application’s APIs, the underlying code, supporting infrastructure, and any other components which could be compromised. The goal for any organization is to reduce the attack surface area by discovering and minimizing potential vulnerabilities.

The process of protecting web API from attacks and ensuring only authorized access takes place is called API security. In the past six months attacks targeting APIs have increased by 400%. This has resulted in API security becoming a C-level discussion in many companies.

In the fast-paced digital world, think of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) as the threads that stitch together the fabric of our tech ecosystems. They're often overlooked, quietly ensuring that your apps communicate seamlessly and keep the digital world running smoothly. The majority of organizations grapple with a common challenge — limited visibility into their public API attack surfaces.

If you're involved with cybersecurity and are based in Europe, then Black Hat Europe 2023 in London, December 6 and 7 is a must-attend event. Wallarm, the experts in API and Application Security, will be attending the event, and we're excited to connect with you. If you are planning to attend, come by our booth or feel free to schedule a slot to meet with our API and App Security experts.

Recent API breaches drive home the urgency of robust security. In the T-Mobile data breach, for example, the attackers exploited vulnerabilities in an API to compromise sensitive customer data. This incident exposed millions of users to potential identity theft and underscored the devastating impact of API security lapses. Infiltrating through the API, the attackers gained unauthorized access to customer records, emphasizing the need for comprehensive protection measures.

On November 16, 2023, a significant security concern was published by Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG). They revealed an alarming vulnerability in Zimbra Collaboration, a widely-used email hosting tool for organizations. This vulnerability, designated with an identifier, CVE-2023-37580, is a glaring example of a reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) issue. It allows malicious scripts to be injected into unsuspecting users' browsers through a deceptively simple method: clicking on a harmful link.

One of my favourite tools for playing with REST APIs is, of course, Postman. It can make interacting with DataTrails super quick and easy, and help you develop custom workflows for storing and validating your digital provenance and audit trails. Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting a robust Postman set-up configured, and if you head over the Postman public collections you’ll find a link to a pre-baked DataTrails Postman collection with this done for you, along with some example requests.