The types of API security solutions available can include API gateways, web application firewalls (WAF), API specific security tools and Unified API Protection. It’s important to understand how each of these tools addresses an organizations’ API security requirements, which typically entail API discovery, threat and risk detection followed by mitigation and remediation.
The first type of API security are API gateways, which are designed to aggregate and manage APIs. API gateways include basic security functions such as rate limiting and IP block lists. API gateways are unable to proactively discover APIs and do not perform threat detection, risk analysis, remediation or mitigation.
The next type of API security is a WAF, which is web focused and do not perform automated API discovery, or uncover coding errors. WAFs use signatures to detect known vulnerabilities found in the OWASP Web Application Top 10 Threats list.
The third type of API security is an API specific toolset which focuses on helping development produce APIs with fewer errors. These tools fall short of addressing the complete set of API security requirements defined above.
The most complete type of API security is a Unified API Protection solution, complete with API discovery, threat and risk detection followed by mitigation and remediation. Unified API Protection goes beyond using point products to address individual phases, such as compliance or testing, along with legacy security technologies to protect your APIs.