Why is Api security important to business today?
API security is important for business as it functions as business endpoints that may expose data being held by that business to the public.
As reported by The ProgrammableWeb (Santos, 2017), “Public API growth is exponential” and will grow more in the upcoming years, which makes it the current hackers battle ground and some of the latest massive data breaches are related to the manipulation of these API endpoints, thus making API security important for business.
API’s are the new cybersecurity battlefield for hackers.
Nowadays API (application programming interface) is very commonly used, more and more businesses from small size to enterprises have moved to web applications that implant API of some sort either in cloud environments or in their data centers. Among these companies you can find Google, Apple and even your local grocery store.
Most business API’s have data access endpoints, these endpoints might allow access to functions that in turn open service connections, transfer of data and business logic, on many occasions the data is sensitive.
Unfortunately for API services, with a greater deal of exposure comes a marked increase in vulnerability.”
(Kristopher Sandoval, 2017 – nordicapis)
These endpoints and more correctly the manipulation of endpoints is nowadays a hackers battlefield.
Financial loss
A successful Api attack often results in substantial financial loss,during the coronavirus pandemic the estimated global losses from cybercrime is 1 trillion dollars.
Data breach may change the life of your business and have huge impacts having sensitive information exposed. Common data breach exposures include personal information, such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and healthcare histories, as well as corporate information, customer lists and source code.
Reputational damage
Additionally exposure of sensitive personal information has a repercussions on the business reputation and destroy the trust your customers have with you.This can lead to:
- Loss of customers
- Drop in in sales
- Reduction in revenues
The consequence of trust damage can even impact your business environment , or relationships with your partners.
Operational suspension
Business operations will often be disturb during a data breach. Operations may need to be completely shut down until investigators get all the answers they need. Depending on the severity of the breach the investigation can take days, even weeks, depending on the severity of the breach. This can have an impact on revenue and an organisation’s ability to recover.
According to Gartner, the average cost of network downtime is around $5,600 per minute. This equates to around $300,000 per hour( depending on the size of the company), then it can have a devastating impact and significantly affect business productivity.
Legal consequences
Data protection laws require you to manage the security of all personal data you hold,if you have failed, you may face fines and sanctions, obviously it is depend on the level of breach, number of person affected.
