Organizing API Security Around the NIST Cybersecurity Framework

APIs are the backbone of modern applications, enabling seamless integration and data exchange. This makes APIs a prime target for cyberattacks. According to Traceable’s 2023 State of API Security Report, 60% of organizations experienced an API-related breach in the last two years. If you’re a security leader looking to improve your organization’s API security posture and protect against attacks targeting APIs, organizing around a respected security framework such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 can help you lay a roadmap for your organization’s API security journey.    

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) provides a comprehensive approach to managing cybersecurity risks, including those related to APIs. By taking advantage of the NIST Cyber Security Framework when designing and developing your API security program, you feel confident that you are taking the right steps to effectively mitigate risks and protect your critical data and services

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework and API Security

The rise of microservice architecture has led to an explosion of APIs, powering nearly every interaction, integration, and transfer of data in modern applications. This dramatic increase in APIs has fundamentally expanded the application attack surface. While APIs offer tremendous benefits in terms of flexibility, scalability, and ease of integration, they can also open the door to significant threats and abuse without proper security controls. Given that many APIs provide access to sensitive data and critical resources coupled with the difficulty in effectively securing them, the business consequences of an API-related breach are extremely high. Therefore, securing APIs is not just important but critical to the overall security of your applications and business operations.

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 outlines the key functions and outcomes of a cybersecurity program. In this section, we’ll use the NIST Cybersecurity Framework as a foundation to define the key functions and outcomes of an API security program. We’ll first outline each of the key functions of the NIST framework. We’ll then explore key API security activities that map to the framework.

1. Identify: The organization’s current cybersecurity risks are understood.
2. Protect: Safeguards to manage the organization’s cybersecurity risks are used.
3. Detect: Possible cybersecurity attacks and compromises are found and analyzed.
4. Respond: Actions regarding a detected cybersecurity incident are taken
5. Recover: Assets and operations affected by a cybersecurity incident are restored.
6. Govern: The organization’s cybersecurity risk management strategy, expectations, and policy are established, communicated, and monitored.

Understanding the API Security Lifecycle

The API security lifecycle parallels the stages of the NIST framework, providing a structured approach to securing APIs at every stage, from development to deployment and beyond. A well designed API security program derived from a complete security lifecycle involves continuous processes to identify, protect, detect, respond to, and recover from API security threats. As the program conforms to the NIST framework more closely over time, the security outcomes become more predictable and consistent.

API Security - Identify:

The first step when building an API security program is to catalog and assess all APIs within your organization, including internal, external, and third-party APIs. The security and development organizations must conduct risk assessments to understand potential vulnerabilities in all discovered APIs. Implement automated tools to continuously discover and inventory all deployed APIs thus maintaining an up-to-date catalog of APIs, including versions and endpoints, and identifying unmanaged or rogue “shadow” APIs that could pose security risks.

Key Takeaway: Implement automated tools to discover and inventory all APIs continuously.

API Security - Protect:

Once you have a reasonably complete catalog and risk measurement capability in place, an API security program should require security measures such as authentication, authorization, encryption, and regular security testing to safeguard APIs. Performing automated and manual dynamic application security testing (DAST) to identify runtime vulnerabilities in APIs and simulating attacks to test the resilience of APIs against common threats adds robustness to the protection segment of the API security lifecycle. Finally, validating that APIs handle unexpected inputs gracefully without exposing sensitive information is required for complete protection.

Key Takeaway: Deploy authentication, authorization, encryption, and regular security testing measures for all APIs.

API Security - Detect:

Proactive detection of attacks and vulnerabilities is required during this section of the framework. Enterprises should monitor API activity to identify suspicious behavior or potential breaches in real-time. They should also use logging and alerting mechanisms to track API usage and detect anomalies. Capturing detailed logs of API requests and responses, including headers and payloads, and storing these logs in an API security data lake to support threat hunting, detection, and investigation results in the best ability to detect attacks over time. Proactively searching for indicators of compromise (IOCs) and advanced persistent threats (APTs) within API traffic helps prevent attacks, not just determine issues post fact.

Key Takeaway: Monitor API activity and implement logging and alerting mechanisms to detect threats and anomalies.

API Security - Respond:

Incidents are going to happen. It’s impossible to prevent every modern attack and threat scenario. Enterprises must develop a response plan to address and mitigate security incidents involving APIs while focusing on business resilience and security simultaneously. This includes real-time blocking of malicious activity and executing incident response protocols in the event of a successful attack. Configure the alerts for security incidents based on predefined thresholds and rules, ensuring alerts provide actionable information to facilitate quick response, and integrating alerting with incident management systems such as a SIEM or SOAR platform to streamline response processes.

Key Takeaway: Develop and implement an incident response plan for API security breaches.

API Security - Recover

Recovery is an important step in an API security program. Without recovery it's impossible to return to normal secure business operations in a timely manner. Enterprises must ensure robust recovery processes are in place to restore API functionality and secure operations post-incident. Security teams should document lessons learned, execute table top exercises and update security measures to match new findings. Conducting detailed investigations of API security incidents to determine the root cause and impact, analyzing sequences of API calls, traces, and other evidence to reconstruct attack vectors and timelines is required to build a recovery plan. Applying updates to fix identified vulnerabilities in APIs and implementing configuration changes to enhance security and prevent recurrence of incidents helps shift the problem earlier in the development lifecycle mitigating future business risk.

Key Takeaway: Establish recovery processes to restore API functionality and secure operations post-incident.

API Security - Govern:

When applied to API security, the "Govern" function in the NIST model involves establishing a governance framework to ensure consistent application and maintenance of security policies across the organization. This includes developing and enforcing API security policies, implementing role-based access controls, managing compliance with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA, providing ongoing security training, and establishing metrics for measuring policy effectiveness. Additionally, it encompasses managing third-party risks and ensuring a continuous improvement process. A strong API security technology platform aids these programmatic efforts by offering comprehensive visibility, control, and reporting capabilities to support policy enforcement and compliance demonstration.

Key Takeaway: Create a governance framework to enforce API security policies and continuously monitor and manage compliance posture.

Conclusion

Organizing API security around the NIST Cybersecurity Framework provides a structured and comprehensive approach to managing API-related risks. By clearly defining the API security lifecycle and mapping responsibilities to each function of the NIST framework, organizations will ensure that their APIs are well-protected against emerging threats. With the collaboration of all relevant stakeholders, from product security teams to SOC analysts and compliance leaders, businesses can create a robust API security strategy that enhances resilience and protects critical data and services. By following these guidelines, your organization can leverage the NIST Cybersecurity Framework to achieve a higher level of API security, ensuring that your APIs remain secure and your business operations continue without disruption.

About Traceable

Traceable is the industry’s leading API Security company helping organizations achieve API protection in a cloud-first, API-driven world. Traceable is the only contextually-informed solution that powers complete API security – API discovery and posture management, API security testing, attack detection and threat hunting, and attack protection anywhere your APIs live. Traceable enables organizations to minimize risk and maximize the value that APIs bring to their customers. To learn more about how API security can help your business, visit https://www.traceable.ai/.

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