Zero Trust Policies
12 January 2023
Overview
“Zero Trust” is a framework for securing infrastructure and data. It is the only approach of its kind designed to meet today’s corporate concerns, such as remote work, hybrid cloud settings, ransomware, and API attacks. Many suppliers have attempted to define Zero Trust in their own terms. In addition, a variety of standards from reputable organizations can assist you in aligning Zero Trust with your own business. Here’s what you need to know to get started.
The Zero Trust approach serves in part to address the continuous changes brought on by the Agile methodology. That methodology, the most common current approach in the tech world, tries to deliver the best product through small cross-functional inner teams. These teams regularly supply small pieces of functionality, allowing for frequent customer input and course correction. For API development, Agile entails constant changes and updates in the software, code, and product software architecture. Each update may introduce new security risks.
A Zero Trust Policy
Zero Trust is a security concept based on the premise that organizations should not trust anything within or outside their perimeters, and that they should check anything attempting to connect to their systems before providing access. Zero Trust architecture is predicated on the principle that nothing can be trusted, including any device, user, or program attempting to interact with your architecture. Your default setting is to regard everything as a potential threat to verify.
Why Your API Should Follow Zero Trust Policy
There are compelling reasons for adopting a Zero Trust Policy. Software programs communicate with each other using APIs. They are the core of modern software patterns, such as microservices architectures. As a result, API usage has exploded in recent years.
The client-side of an application (e.g., a mobile or web app) interacts with the server-side of an application via an API, whether for consumers, employees, partners, or machine-to-machine scenarios. APIs make it simple for a developer to design a client-side application by leveraging microservices.
APIs change regularly – in weeks, days, or even hours – thanks to Agile development approaches. Security testing during the build process is never enough to capture all coding gaps and vulnerabilities at today’s development tempo. Moreover, APIs are often widely documented or easily reverse-engineered because they’re often available through public networks, allowing access from anyone. Being widely utilized, and because they allow access to essential software functions and data, they have become a primary target for hackers.
Modern software programs are vulnerable to various dangers, so it is advisable to stay up to speed on the latest exploits and security flaws. Benchmarks for such defects are critical for ensuring application security before an attack becomes acute. In addition, the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is a reputable nonprofit organization that publishes software security assessments. It lists the top 10 API vulnerabilities that attackers can use to harm any organization, extract PII (Personally identifiable information) data, or even bring a large-scale system down.
Whom to Trust
It can be challenging to counter all these threats and restrictions. The solution is to protect APIs by securing them holistically and comprehensively throughout the software lifecycle.
Wib is the only API security solution to secure your API across its entire lifecycle, from development to production. As a result, your organization’s security and efficiency improve, and your Agile development teams can stay in sync.
You can secure your product by securing your API safely. However, even when you “Trust No One” with a Zero Trust policy, you must still ensure that you protect your application at every stage of the product life cycle.
