Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

The latest Salt Labs State of API Security report is out, and we’re excited to share with you some of the key findings. The security industry news has frequently covered high-profile application programming interface (API) breaches over the past few years, so it’s no surprise that our research found that attackers have upped their activity. Salt Labs analyzed the past year of Salt customer data and found a 400% increase in unique attackers just over the last six months alone.

The recent SCARLETEEL incident highlights the importance of detecting security threats early in the development cycle. With Terraform state files, attackers can easily access sensitive information and gain unauthorized access to your cloud infrastructure. In this case, the attackers exploited a containerized workload and used it to perform privilege escalation into an AWS account, stealing software and credentials.

Regardless of the techniques used, going big, expensive, and glossy – while potentially useful - doesn’t replace the need for a well-reasoned approach to securing assets founded on traditional activities and principles. Innumerable assets are housed behind APIs, and the widespread use of APIs means they are high-profile targets. Securing them is of the utmost importance.

A joint advisory on LockBit 3.0 ransomware, CISA’s latest tool which detects hacking activity in Microsoft cloud services, and ScarCruft’s evolving arsenal.

Many of the businesses that already have revenue-generating web applications are starting an API-first program. Now, old monolithic apps are being broken into microservices developed in elastic and flexible service-mesh architecture. The common question most organizations grapple with is – how to enhance application security designed for web apps to APIs and API security? Protecting APIs against modern cyber threats requires going beyond the traditional solutions.

Last month, Lead Partner Solutions Architect, David Schott, presented a demo on how Snyk works alongside Amazon Web Services (AWS) to identify vulnerabilities at every level of development and infrastructure. David covered why agile development in the cloud requires a different security approach than simply using the IT security methods of the past. Then, he showed a real-time example of how Snyk’s AWS cloud security tools can find and mitigate common vulnerabilities.

We’ve already had the first major API-related cybersecurity incidents for 2023. The T-Mobile API breach exposed the personally identifiable information (PII) of 37 million customers. The API attack had been going on since November but was not discovered and disclosed until January 19, illustrating the threat of the “low and slow” approach of API attacks, which are increasing at a steady pace.

The rapidly changing technology and portability of mobile devices have forced people to rely heavily on those products. With their increased functionalities, mobile devices carry out a number of our day-to-day activities, such as surfing the web, booking appointments, setting up reminders, sharing files, instant messaging, video calling, and even mobile banking.

Rapid digitization means that organizations are now more connected than ever. Most organizations now host a combination of interconnected IT, OT, IoT and sometimes IoMT devices in their networks, which has increased their attack surface. Forescout’s data shows that around 24% of connected devices in every organization are no longer traditional IT.