Address Each Component To Build A Holistic API Security Program

Working with existing API management tools is crucial for enhancing API security; these tools provide a structured approach to managing APIs throughout their lifecycle. Forrester believes the market will continue to evolve. API security will go from a point solution to a vital application security component. APIs continue to play a critical role in digital ecosystems.

IT leaders should work with their info security team to flesh out the requirements to support API security components and augment their API management with the emerging market of API security software. See The API Security Software Landscape, Q3 2024, for a list of notable API security vendors.

pipelines (IaC scanning), 4) APIs used to access cloud workloads (API security), and 5) application security (AppSec) (see Figure 2).

After years of web application firewall (WAF) vendors building and buying adjacent application security tools, like bot management and API security, most have consolidated their offerings into unified web application protection platforms. However, customers must ask questions about the data model, UI, and pricing bundles to ensure that they are really getting a platform .

WAPPs focus on runtime defenses, safeguarding applications against real-time threats like attacks or exploits, with solutions such as WAF, API security, DDoS protection, and bot management through vendors such as Akamai Technologies and Cloudflare.

The top areas of increased investment include application risk management and/or application security posture management tools (31%), application security observability tools (30%), API security (29%), web application firewall (27%), and interactive application security testing (27%).

Market definition Inline definition Web application protection platforms include a range of features and functions to protect complex applications from application layer attacks. While WAF is at the core, bundles also include bot management, API security, and client-side protection (see Figure 1).

Scenario H: Securing third-party APIs. Third-party APIs are shared across many applications and teams. API credentials are stored in multiple locations — one for each team and application accessing the service — which creates a secrets management and firewall egress route configuration nightmare (see Figure 8). Scenario A Figure 1 outlines the challenge, core principle, and key steps to resolution for scenario A: setting up appropriate governance.

Strengthen API security and software supply chain resilience. Rapidly expanding API attack surfaces, rising software supply chain risks, stalled DevSecOps, and ungoverned sprawl of AI and low-code applications are moving application security up the priority list.