By: Will Au, Vice President, Development Operations
Weak cybersecurity can cost you millions: How safe are you?
Use these API and iPaas cybersecurity fundamentals to better protect your business from costly data breaches.
Cybersecurity remains a top priority across all industries.
When a malicious actor breaks into your network, it can cost you millions of dollars. As of 2022, the average cost of a data breach in the United States is $9.44M U.S. dollars, an increase from $9.05M last year.
The catastrophic impact of a cyber attack, combined with the threat of a global recession, has triggered many organizations to bulk up their security spending in the next year. Australia enterprises, for instance, are set to increase cyber budgets by as much as 60%, according to a PwC report.
Complex cyberattacks leverage a combination of several different actions including malware and hacking that show up in supply chain breaches and ransomware–both of which increased dramatically this year. And unfortunately, these types of system intrusions are on the rise.
But despite the complexity of cyber attacks, there are several simple best practices that can go a long way in protecting your assets.
5 API and iPaaS Cybersecurity Best Practices:
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Audit your infrastructure and procedures.
When it comes to cybersecurity, it is critical to know your blind spots.
With the rapid growth of interconnected APIs and microservices spread across several cloud-based and on-premise environments, organizations must evaluate their security practices. A weak API and iPaaS security infrastructure can leave your company vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Be sure to work with your organization’s security and compliance specialist to get a comprehensive set of guidelines. They will know if you operate under any regulatory requirements, such as US FAA or FDA, and ensure your security setup complies with these requirements.
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Don’t store data in the cloud.
If you use a Cloud Agent Group, make sure they are multi-tenant and locked down.
Data should only remain on the agent to complete processing.
During an integration, your cloud agent group should connect directly with the application that requires data integration. It then reads and posts data to these applications.
For data that persists in a Cloud Agent Group, make sure it’s stored in encrypted buckets that are not directly user accessible.
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Limit access so that users can only use what they need to perform their tasks.
Think about users and groups and what they do.
Different users and groups will need different access levels to access your system. A user doesn’t need the same access level as a developer or an administrator.
For example, one of your developers may need special permissions to create and edit security profiles, create and edit APIs, and access certain functionality. But, the day-to-day user doesn’t require these elevated permissions.
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Use multi-factor authentication.
A username and password are not enough anymore.
It’s critical to provide secure authentication using OAuth and multi-factor authentication, such as 2FA (two-factor authentication).
Be sure your network supports OAuth 2.0 authentication with your endpoints as Identity Providers.
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Add certificates to a keystore.
Installing applications requires trust.
Confirm your installed applications include a trusted keystore that contains the certificates needed for secure communication via HTTPS.
For example, you would add a new certificate to a Java keystore if you use a proxy server and need to allow a local client to securely communicate through the proxy server.
As businesses continue to transform their monolithic systems into microservices, APIs will be more prone to data breach vulnerabilities.
With cyberattacks on the rise, it’s more important than ever to re-evaluate the security of your company’s data integration solutions. Implementing API and iPaaS cybersecurity best practices, like user privilege management and two-factor authorization, will prevent costly cyberattacks and data breaches from disrupting your business and damaging your reputation.
