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API Security and Solutions: Addressing New Challenges in Finance 3.0

The arrival of Finance 3.0 is bringing more challenges to the financial industry, with API security becoming the focus. In the coming years, the number of APIs will grow exponentially, and APIs will become one of the most commonly attacked corporate web application services. Therefore, effectively protecting APIs has become a crucial task for corporate security teams.

The Impact of Government Regulations and FSC Rules on API Security

As a highly digitalized and information-centric industry, the security of the financial industry is of utmost importance. Government regulations and financial supervisory institutions (such as the Financial Supervisory Commission, FSC) typically establish a series of laws and rules to ensure the operational safety of financial institutions and the privacy of user data. These regulations and rules impose clear requirements on the API security of financial institutions, and financial institutions must comply with these regulations to ensure the security and compliance of their APIs.

1.1 Government Regulations on API Security Requirements

Government regulations typically require financial institutions to enforce strict security protection on their APIs to ensure the safety and privacy of user data. These requirements may include:

  • Authentication requirements: Financial institutions must ensure strict authentication for API access to ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive data.

  • Data encryption standards: Financial institutions are generally required to use encryption techniques to protect sensitive data during transmission to prevent interception or theft during the process.

  • Monitoring and reporting requirements: Financial institutions need to monitor and report API usage to identify and respond to potential security threats and risks in a timely manner.

1.2 FSC's API Security Requirements

As a financial supervisory institution, the FSC imposes more specific and professional requirements on the API security of financial institutions. The FSC’s requirements are typically more detailed and specific, including:

  • Authentication and authorization requirements: The FSC requires financial institutions to ensure the reliability of their API’s authentication and authorization mechanisms to prevent unauthorized users from accessing sensitive data.

  • Security monitoring and reporting requirements: The FSC requires financial institutions to continuously monitor and report their API usage to promptly identify and respond to potential security threats and risks.

  • Vulnerability patching and risk assessment requirements: The FSC requires financial institutions to regularly patch vulnerabilities and conduct risk assessments on their APIs to timely identify and fix any potential security vulnerabilities and risks.

API Security Challenges in Finance and Akamai's Solutions

Although government regulations and FSC rules clearly set requirements for API security in the financial industry, financial institutions still face numerous challenges. These challenges include:

2.1 Authentication Vulnerabilities

Authentication is one of the key elements of API security, but financial institutions often face authentication vulnerabilities that allow unauthorized users to access sensitive data, resulting in security risks.

2.2 Data Leakage Risks

The APIs of financial institutions may have data leakage risks, where sensitive data is intercepted or stolen during transmission and storage, leading to user data breaches and damages.

2.3 API Attacks

The APIs of financial institutions may face various types of attacks, including DDoS attacks, SQL injection attacks, etc., which could cause API service disruptions and data breaches.

2.4 Akamai's Solutions

Akamai offers a series of solutions to help financial institutions address API security challenges. These solutions include:

  • API Security Products: Block API attacks, detect business logic abuse, and use behavioral analysis to discover and monitor API activities.
  • Web Application Firewall (WAF): Protect APIs from various network attacks.
  • Zero Trust Security: Ensure secure remote access and prevent unauthorized access.
  • Enterprise Threat Protection (ETP): Protect against malicious websites, phishing, and malware.
  • Guardicore Micro-Segmentation: Prevent ransomware lateral movement and enhance internal network security.

A Closer Look at BOLA

BOLA is a security vulnerability that occurs when an application or API provides access to data objects based on user roles but fails to verify if the user is authorized to access these specific data objects. BOLA is part of the larger family of authorization flaws and is a major issue in application security.

BOLA prevention and mitigation strategies include implementing proper access control, using mapping to track whether users are authorized to access requested objects, and applying strong authentication and session management to verify users and ensure their sessions are properly managed.

API Management (APIM) for Financial Enterprises – Mitigating Financial Inspection Deficiencies

Financial enterprises must prepare for financial inspection items proposed by the FSC, mainly covering six areas: AML (Anti-Money Laundering), combating the financing of terrorism and the implementation of counter-proliferation measures, compliance system implementation, corporate governance operation, information security management, financial consumer protection operations, and personal data protection. Therefore, to avoid financial deficiencies, what should be taken care of?

API management is closely related to financial inspections, and the choice of APIM platform determines whether financial enterprises can meet financial inspection requirements. The APIM platform can assist financial institutions in fulfilling multiple financial inspection requirements, including API classification assistance, API deployment authorization, appropriate API authentication, real-time API monitoring, and API control mechanisms. For financial institutions, particular attention must be paid to API classification assistance and deployment authorization to ensure the secure operation and compliance of APIs.

Major Threats and Challenges Caused by API Proliferation

The surge in APIs has led to challenges in decentralized management. 85% of enterprises deploy applications and APIs in multiple public clouds, on-premises, and edge environments, increasing the attack surface. Furthermore, abandoned APIs also pose risks, as outdated or zombie APIs may become security vulnerabilities due to lack of management. What’s more concerning is that many enterprises have experienced incidents of sensitive data or privacy leaks, which not only lead to significant costs but also damage corporate reputations.

How to Strengthen API Protection?

To address these challenges, corporate security teams need to inventory their APIs and implement appropriate protective mechanisms:

  1. Ensure a secure infrastructure: In a multi-cloud and microservices environment, security teams must ensure that the infrastructure has sufficient capacity to support comprehensive API attack defenses.

  2. Build an API learning and identification model: Use AI and machine learning technologies to establish API model baselines and track API behavior to identify anomalies.

  3. Identify API request validation and authorization: Provide detailed authentication status and risk scores for each API resource to ensure that the origin's authentication and access content meet security requirements.

  4. Detect PII (Personally Identifiable Information): Detect and flag PII exposed through APIs and implement masking functions to protect user privacy.

  5. Strengthen API inventory and control mechanisms: Establish a complete API resource inventory and monitoring mechanism to ensure API resources are within the security control scope and proactively identify APIs outside of security control.

  6. Establish an API attack defense mechanism: The infrastructure should include a Web Application Firewall (WAF) that can immediately block malicious API requests to protect APIs from attacks.

The Advantages and Value of Akamai 

Akamai, as a leading information security company, offers the following advantages and value:

  1. Global Coverage: With the largest server network globally, distributed across over 130 countries, ensuring fast content delivery
  2. Efficient Dynamic Content Optimization: Accelerates dynamic content such as API requests and multimedia streaming
  3. Robust Security: Offers DDoS protection, network threat detection, and WAF
  4. Highly Customizable: Customers can configure and manage content delivery strategies according to their needs
  5. Real-Time Analysis and Monitoring: Provides deep performance statistics and monitoring tools
  6. Green Sustainability: Committed to energy saving and carbon neutrality

Akamai's Best Partner - Netron Information Technology

Netron Information Technology is the largest professional DDoS defense service provider in the Asia-Pacific region, offering comprehensive solutions to enterprises that can block all types of DDoS attacks. Netron has successfully helped clients fend off millions of DDoS attacks, boasting rich defense experience. Our partner, Akamai, is the only SaaS platform that guarantees a 100% SLA and has gained the trust of half of the Fortune 500 brands worldwide, making it the best choice for enterprise cloud security protection. 

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