Cloud Security Challenges That Begin and End With API Management

If you work in cloud security, you’ve more than likely already learned one uncomfortable truth by now: APIs can be both your best friend and your worst enemy. They power a wide range of capabilities across cloud infrastructures but also pose serious security challenges.

Why APIs Deserve Your Attention

APIs were once thought of as mere connection points, but today, they are so much more than that. They're the primary method of communication between your cloud services, enabling the exchange of data and the functionality your organization depends on.

However, API attacks have surged by 3000% in recent years, and many key industries are under attack, including banking and finance, healthcare, retail, and power and energy. And while you may be thinking, “We have API gateways and authentication in place, so we're covered."

But here's an unsettling reality check: API security has grown far more complex than most security teams anticipated. 

The Invisible Attack Surface

Most modern organizations contain hundreds (or potentially even thousands) of APIs. Many of these were connected during rapid development cycles or built by various disconnected teams with different security practices. APIs are often deployed without any real documentation in place, which makes them hard to track and inspect.

Once these APIs are “forgotten” after the initial implementation, they become a potential attack vector that becomes increasingly vulnerable day by day. This creates what is known as "shadow APIs,” or endpoints that exist in your environment but aren't properly tracked, monitored, or secured. The key point to take away here is that you can't protect what you don't know exists.

A Look at Some of the Main API Security Challenges in the Cloud

Okay, let’s highlight and explore these cloud security challenges that APIs present.

1. Discovery and Inventory Problems

Take a moment and think about how well your organization can truly answer these questions:

• How many APIs exist across your cloud environment?
• Who created them and for what purpose?
• What data do they access or transmit?
• Which are publicly accessible versus internal only?

If you can’t answer these questions clearly, you're hoping attackers won't find vulnerabilities before you do. Yet, given the pace at which most organizations expand their cloud footprint, it’s no surprise that security teams have a hard time maintaining an accurate inventory.

Development teams create new endpoints, third-party integrations add connections, and business merger activities introduce entirely new API ecosystems into the mix. This constantly shifting landscape makes API discovery a persistent and significant challenge rather than a one-time task.

2. Authentication Weaknesses

Even APIs that everyone knows about can have serious security flaws. Developers might accidentally store API keys they create in code repositories where they shouldn't be. Security settings might be misconfigured. Token validations might be implemented poorly or skipped during testing and never fixed.

Just one API with poor authentication can give attackers all the access they need to penetrate your network and access your entire cloud system. What makes this especially dangerous is that everything might seem fine during day-to-day use, but these security gaps only become obvious once an attack has taken place

3. Authorization and Access Control Gaps

Another problem APIs can bring is incorrectly configured access controls. While your system might correctly identify users and authenticate them, it may give them permissions to systems and data that they shouldn’t be able to access. In other words, an API might verify who someone is but not properly limit what they can do once they're in.

Common issues here include missing permission checks for specific functions, business roles with too many permissions, and APIs that don't limit how many requests someone can make within a particular period. These flaws let attackers start with minimal access, move laterally, and gradually expand what they can reach in your system.

4. Data Exposure Through Oversharing

APIs exist to share data. That’s the principal value that they bring. But as with any data sharing function, there’s a risk that you may be sharing too much without realizing it.

Maybe your API is returning more information than it should in each response. It might not filter out sensitive details as you thought it would. Or it might show data in plain text instead of encrypting it.

If an API has a poor design in this way, it can lead to the leak of personal information, financial data, or other sensitive content without setting off any alarms. These leaks happen slowly over time rather than in one significant, apparent breach.

Best Practices for Improving Your API Security

Now that we have reviewed the challenges, let’s examine some steps you can take to address them.

Create and Maintain a Full API Inventory

You need to know what APIs you’re operating with so you can protect them. You can do this manually or use automated tools to scan your environment and detect active APIs. Once you have an inventory, document each API's purpose, owner, data access, and security controls. This inventory should be a living document updated with each deployment.

Implement Zero Trust Principles

Don't trust any API request that comes through automatically, even from inside your network. Verify every request, restrict access to the minimum amount needed, and monitor for unusual patterns and behavior. This means taking the time to check identity, context, and behavior for every interaction.

Use API Gateways Effectively

A good API gateway should be a security checkpoint for all API traffic that flows through your network. Configure yours to enforce authentication, rate limiting, and input validation. Make sure that it logs all activity in detail for security analysis and incident response.

Regular Security Testing

Don’t just inventory your APIs and forget about them. You should be scheduling frequent security assessments of your APIs. This should include both automated scans and manual penetration testing by security experts who try to get past your defenses like an attacker would. Also, don’t forget to give special attention to testing access controls.

Adopt a DevSecOps Approach

The absolute best practice is to build security into your API development process from the start. This means training developers on secure coding practices specifically for APIs. You can use standardized templates that already include security controls and automate security checks in your CI/CD pipeline.

Final Word

While you may be fine today, the harsh truth is that poor API security practices can catch up with you at the worst possible time.

It's like having a slow leak in your roof. It may be fine and unnoticeable on a sunny day, but when the storm comes, you’ll suddenly have many problems that won’t be easy to solve.