LAST UPDATED December 5, 2024
In today’s digital ecosystem, businesses face relentless cyber threats. Recently, hackers exploited APIs to distribute fake invoices to large companies, as highlighted by CPOMagazine. This article underscores a critical gap in many organizations’ security posture—the lack of runtime security and comprehensive API cataloging. For cybersecurity leaders, runtime security plays a pivotal role in addressing this gap.
Traditional scanners, such as static application security testing (SAST) and dynamic application security testing (DAST), offer little to no insight into API processes. They cannot accurately detect the origination of an API and are therefore prone to inaccuracies, resulting in excessive false positives and negatives. Moreover, these technologies function as intermittent scanners, failing to monitor applications and APIs continuously throughout their lifecycle, which leaves vulnerabilities open for exploitation by hackers.
In contrast, runtime security continuously monitors all API traffic, detecting unexpected behaviors as they occur. By integrating runtime monitoring with traditional security tools, organizations gain a real-time, 360-degree view of their entire API ecosystem, enhancing observability and proactively addressing potential threats before they escalate.
One of the most insidious risks is the proliferation of “zombie” and “shadow” APIs—those forgotten or untracked yet still active and exposed. Without visibility into these APIs, businesses risk leaving critical systems vulnerable to attack. Cataloging every single API, including unintentional or “hidden” ones, is paramount for protecting sensitive data and maintaining a resilient security posture.
At ThreatX, we believe that prioritizing a comprehensive API cataloging strategy, conducted through application/API runtime security technology, is essential for effective threat detection and protection.
