A large number of software systems and applications are reliable on APIs in today’s world. The use of APIs allows developers to connect different services to pre-existing applications without having to develop complex applications or make elaborate changes to add new features. however, the interconnected API space creates numerous access points and a massive online data stream that introduces new vulnerabilities and increases the chances of potential breaches. Implementing Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) helps businesses monitor and address these API security challenges with precision.

In a conversation with Mr. Buchi Reddy, CEO of Levo.ai, the panel highlights how CTEM provides a structured framework that works round-the-clock to identify, analyze, and resolve security threats in real-time. API security and Attack Surface Management (ASM) are two key elements of the Continuous Threat Exposure Management program working in tandem to reduce and control risk exposure in the cloud system and digital workspaces.

What is Continuous Threat Exposure Management?

Continuous Threat Exposure Management is a cybersecurity strategy that improves traditional threat detection and implements more effective security methods. Instead of addressing the security breaches after they happen, CTEM’s proactive approach assesses the business model continuously to identify potential threats and possible attack patterns to provide a more holistic security approach. This threat exposure management method provides organizations with the means to maintain a robust defense system by identifying vulnerabilities with cloud asset vulnerability assessments before external malicious actors can exploit them.

Key Features of Continuous Threat Exposure Management

Continuous Threat Exposure Management or CTEM offers some key benefits to businesses. According to the panelists of our latest webinar, Mr. Buchi Reddy and Setu Parimi, some of the most prominent features of CTEM solutions are:

Threat Intelligence Gathering

CTEM enables organizations to collect data about potential threats from both internal and external sources continuously. The round-the-clock analysis provides real-time visibility of potential threats and vulnerabilities, strengthening security measures.

Vulnerability Identification

CTEM protocols help businesses stay vigilant on all possible access routes on a network system. The continuous monitoring of the online network and API paths allows the security system to discover all potential weaknesses within systems and applications. This real-time threat detection also assists businesses in future threat assessments and mitigation strategies, providing 360-degree brand protection to the business assets. 

Risk Assessment

As CTEM discovers the vulnerabilities, it evaluates the criticality of these threats. This allows the security team to assess the practical impact of potential threats on cloud environment in case of a security incident. The criticality assessment also enables the system to devise the best remediation strategy to prevent escalation of a security breach, protecting the system from more detrimental damages or security impacts. 

Mitigation Strategy

Staying prepared for potential attacks and having a recovery strategy in place is one of the primary requirements of continuous threat exposure management. CTEM helps businesses prepare a versatile response strategy to address and bring the system back online at the earliest in the event of an external attack.

Continuous Improvement

this threat management technique also helps an organization monitor and update the security measures based on the evolving threat landscape on a regular basis. It helps businesses keep up with the evolving nature of cyber threats and fortify their security measures to protect the organization from these attacks.

Benefits of Adopting Continuous Threat Exposure Management

CTEM offers a proactive threat management protocol that provides organizations with a comprehensive, real-time view of their security measures allowing them to identify vulnerabilities early and address these security loopholes quickly. The faster identification and response channels using EASM solutions enable companies to reduce damage from potential attacks, minimize remediation costs, and maintain a strong defense even as new threats emerge. It also allows them to stay vigilant on all possible attack paths and have a real-time understanding of the effectiveness of their security protocol.

The Growing Need for API Security

In the conversation with RiskProfiler, Mr. Buchi Reddy referenced the 2018 Akamai study which shows that 83 percent of web traffic comes from API.  APIs or Application Programming Interfaces are the mechanisms that connect multiple programs and help them communicate over a server. With API implementation, different software applications can communicate, exchange data, and integrate advanced features without complex development needs. Mobile apps to IoT (Internet of Things) devices and cloud services, APIs are used everywhere to allow modern applications to operate and communicate with better effectiveness and efficiency. API mechanisms also enhance user experiences by introducing smart features with simple gateways without having to juggle between multiple applications to use a service.

Increased Threats to APIs

As APIs emerge as an integral component for most online and cloud applications, they also become prime targets for cybercriminals. Being connected to multiple applications and system gateways, APIs create a large number of access points on the internet that can fall vulnerable to external threats. If left unsecured or configured poorly, these open access points created by APIs can expose sensitive data and critical functionalities to external actors, posing significant risks to organizations. Cyber attackers can exploit these vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access, extract confidential information, steal brand identity, and disrupt services. To prevent exploitation via these channels, businesses need to adapt robust API security.

Common Vulnerabilities & Risks Associated with APIs

The OWASP, also known as the Open Web Application Security Project, identifies several API vulnerabilities, including:

Broken Object-Level Authorization

If your system lacks proper authorization measurement, it can lead to Broken Object-Level Authorization cyber attacks. In this attack scenario, people with insufficient validation can access unauthorized data. It also allows external users or malicious actors to gain the ability to perform unauthorized tasks using the brand’s identity

Security Misconfigurations

Security misconfigurations are the erroneous API access controls that can also leave your online systems vulnerable to external threats. Some of the security misconfiguration scenarios may include incomplete or ad-hoc configurations, misconfigured HTTP headers, permissive CORS or Cross-Origin resource sharing, extensively wordy error messages containing sensitive information, easily accessible or open cloud storage, or insecure default configurations. If left unchecked, security misconfigurations can pose significant risks to your online system’s integrity and business confidentiality and damage online availability and service consistency.

Injection Attacks

Injection attacks are orchestrated by external agents by introducing malicious commands to the APIs. These commands can be inserted via text input, uploading files, using input fields, or other possible means. In the absence of proper security measures, external agents can exploit unvalidated input data to manipulate back-end servers and disrupt service and business integrity.

Understanding Attack Surface Management

Attack Surface Management is the cyber security protocol that uses continuous monitoring, identifying, and analyzing to reduce the vulnerable access points present at any point within an organization’s network, systems, and applications. The “attack surface” in ASM refers to all potential entry points that an attacker can possibly manipulate to gain access to a system, including physical, digital, and human elements. Different elements of Cloud Attack Surface Management assess the cloud network for potential weaknesses and play a crucial role in minimizing exposure and mitigating risks in the context of Continuous Threat Exposure Management.

How Attack Surface Management Reduces Risks in CTEM

Attack Surface Management protocols provide efficient visibility into all the system, cloud, and API surfaces. the constant visibility enables security teams to identify vulnerable points and limit unauthorized access. By strengthening the security on the potential attack surfaces, organizations can significantly lower the likelihood of cyber breaches and improve the overall security resilience of their organization system.

How API Security Fits into Attack Surface Management

API security is a critical element of Attack Surface Management, as APIs constitute a substantial part of an organization’s digital attack surface. If APIs are misconfigured, not secured properly, or poorly monitored, they increase the attack surface, providing adversaries with more entry points. Thus, securing APIs and configuring them adhering to the best practices help businesses limit exposure, making it harder for attackers to penetrate systems.

APIs as Attack Surface

• Entry Points for Threats: APIs expose functionalities and data online to external or internal users through different gateways and access points, making them vulnerable to exploitation.

  
  

• Complex and Dynamic: Modern applications often rely on microservices architectures, where APIs facilitate communication between multiple services. This increases the complexity of the attack surface thus increasing the security threats.

  
  

• Continuous Expansion: As organizations adopt more third-party APIs and integrate new services, the attack surface grows, requiring constant monitoring.

Visibility in Attack Surface Management

• Discovery: Attack surface management starts with identifying all assets, including public, internal, and third-party APIs.

  
  

• Shadow APIs: APIs created or deployed without proper documentation or visibility are often a part of shadow IT and represent hidden vulnerabilities in the attack surface.

  
  

• Inventory and Classification: APIs inventory needs to be monitored, classified based on criticality, and understood in the context of their exposure (e.g., external vs. internal).

Risk Prioritization

• Assess Vulnerabilities: System APIs are often vulnerable to issues like improper authentication, misconfiguration, broken object-level authorization, injection attacks, and data exposure.

  
  

• Sensitive Data Flow: APIs often handle sensitive data (e.g., PII, financial data), making their security a priority in reducing risk.

  
  

• Risk Scoring: Attack Surface Management frameworks incorporate API security metrics to prioritize threats associated with APIs.

Real-Time Monitoring

• Threat Detection: Continuous monitoring of API traffic helps detect anomalous behaviors, such as unusual requests or attempted exploits.

  
  

• Rate Limiting and Abuse Prevention: API-specific features like rate limiting, throttling, and IP blocking mitigate abuse and reduce exposure.

  
  

• Attack Simulation: Penetration testing and automated API scans simulate attacks to understand weaknesses.

Security Integration

• Secure Development Lifecycle (SDLC): Security measures for APIs should be integrated during development, reducing vulnerabilities introduced into the attack surface.

  
  

• Compliance and Governance: API security policies and compliance frameworks (e.g., PCI DSS, GDPR) align with broader Attack Surface Management strategies to meet regulatory requirements.

  
  

• API Gateways and WAFs: Tools like API gateways and web application firewalls (WAFs) enforce security policies at the API level and act as a defensive layer within the attack surface.

Incident Response

• Vulnerability Management: Quickly addressing vulnerabilities in APIs (e.g., via patching) is essential to shrink the attack surface.

  
  

• Breach Containment: If an API is compromised, incident response mechanisms should isolate the affected components and prevent further exploitation.

  
  

• Forensics and Analysis: APIs generate logs that are valuable for post-incident analysis, feeding back into Attack Surface Management processes to improve overall security posture.

Tools & Techniques for Securing APIs

Some of the common and most advantageous techniques for fortifying API security are:

API Gateways

API gateways are the API management tools that act as a common data entry point on an API server that builds the communication chain between the user request and the target application. These entry points receive the API calls, trigger the specific actions to execute the request, and then return the result to the specific user. API gateways offer a single entry point for API traffic, providing an additional layer of security. This gateway is used for managing, adding security, and optimizing API calls.

Rate Limiting & Throttling

In API security measures, rate limiting and throttling play an integral part in limiting user access. Rate limiting allows organizations to set a maximum number of API requests allowed during a specific period. If the API request limit is reached at any point during the sessions, further requests are either blocked or delayed to the next session. This element helps prevent API overloads, improves network stability, and establishes ethical communication between system channels.

Throttling, on the other hand, offers a more specific and intricate regulation process over API requests. This method allows organizations to fine-tune the rate limiting process by the inclusion of more finer details like request type, client identity, and API use patterns.

Encryption & Authentication

Encryption is a security method where data is stored using randomized alphanumeric codes. These stored data can already be accessed in their natural form using specific keys that stay with the users. It establishes a strong security process and reduces the data viewing by unauthorized people. Stronger multi-factor authentication or MFA also helps organizations fortify their security measures by limiting unauthorized access.

API Security & ASM: Common Challenges

The complex API structure requires careful handling to avoid misconfigurations and other cyber threats. Some of the prevalent challenges faced in API security and related attack surface management are:

Complexity & Scalability Challenges

API security and Attack Surface Management become increasingly complex as organizations scale up their business. With hundreds or even thousands of APIs in use, managing security becomes a lot more challenging. Furthermore, integrating Attack Surface Management across various digital infrastructures adds more strain to the system, increasing the complexity.

Real-Time Threat Detection & Management

Detecting and managing threats in real time is crucial for effective API security and Attack Surface Management for brand protection. However, the volume of data generated by APIs and network systems can be overwhelming to the system and security protocols. Thus, the application of advanced tools capable of filtering noise and identifying true threats becomes a necessity.

Integrating CASM & API Security Across Diverse Infrastructures

Modern organizations often operate across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments. Integrating API security and Cloud Attack Surface Management solutions into these varied infrastructures requires flexible solutions that can adapt to multiple platforms and environments.

Strengthening API Security & EASM

Companies need to implement strict security regulations to be followed by every technical and non-technical team member. Staying updated in these security protocols allows businesses a better chance at preventing cyber threats. 

Some of the most effective API security and External Attack Surface Management methods are:

• API Gateways & Authentication Mechanisms: An API gateway provides a centralized access point that enforces security controls such as authentication, throttling, and rate limiting. Utilizing strong and secure authentication methods, such as OAuth and JWT, further strengthens API security by ensuring stricter authorization and user validation.
  
  

• Regular Security Audits & Vulnerability Assessments: Conducting routine security audits and vulnerability assessments is essential to identify weaknesses and ensure compliance with security standards. These assessments allow organizations to detect and remediate potential vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
  
  

• Real-Time Monitoring & Automated Threat Response: Automated monitoring tools can detect irregular behavior in real-time, triggering alerts or even automatically responding to potential threats. This level of automation helps to reduce response time and aids in faster threat mitigation. Instilling such an automated attack surface management process also helps with continuous threat exposure management or CTEM.
  
  

• Employee Training & Awareness: Human error can significantly impact API security and ASM. Regular training ensures employees are aware of the latest threats, such as phishing schemes or social engineering tactics, and know how to respond appropriately.

Tools & Technologies for API Security & ASM in CTEM

Businesses can adopt advanced API security tools to manage their API assets, their status, and inventory. These API tools also offer continuous visibility to all APIs used on the network, helping them discover unknown or shadow API assets. Gaining access to these shadow assets helps the security teams better visibility of the online activities and prevents any future attackers from using undetected IT assets. 

Popular API Security Tools & Platforms

Google API Gateway – A Google-managed API platform that offers efficient security, analytics, and traffic management. It also enables compliance with back-end services using consistent REST API.

Azure API Management – It is a hybrid, multi-cloud management platform that allows control over authentication, authorization, scalability, constant visibility, and use limit.

Kong – An open-source API gateway with features for security and scalability.

AWS API Gateway – A service that integrates with AWS’s suite of tools, enhancing security for API-driven applications. It allows developers to create and maintain the APIs while supporting continuous monitoring, and high-level security on a large scale.

Mulesoft Anypoint Flex Gateway – It is an API solution that allows developers to build, deploy, manage, and secure API integrations with DevOps and CI/CD automation workflows.

Emerging Technologies & Trends

AI and machine learning are revolutionizing API security and ASM by enabling predictive threat detection, automated incident response, and behavior-based anomaly detection. These advancements are essential in an era where threats evolve rapidly. 

Additionally, AI and ML can become a vital component in Attack Surface Management, offering predictive insights and enabling automated responses to identified threats. This integration allows organizations to stay one step ahead in their cybersecurity efforts.

How Organizations Can Stay Proactive

To remain secure, organizations must continuously update their security strategies, invest in employee training, and adopt cutting-edge technologies. A proactive approach will ensure a resilient defense against emerging threats. Cloud asset vulnerability assessment using continuous threat exposure management and external attack surface management solutions helps with brand monitoring and protection.

Final Thoughts,

API security and attack surface management are vital components of Continuous Threat Exposure Management. Together, they empower organizations to proactively identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities and help in brand risk management. By adopting best practices, leveraging advanced tools, and staying updated on emerging trends, businesses can strengthen their security posture and reduce the risk of attacks. In a world where digital threats are ever-present, API security and Attack Surface Management offer essential layers of defense, ensuring operational resilience and protection of valuable assets.