API Security Best Practices: A Complete Guide

APIs now connect applications, cloud platforms, SaaS products, users, partners, mobile experiences and machine identities. They make modern digital ecosystems possible, but every connection can also create another path to sensitive systems, business functions and data.

Securing those connections requires more than placing authentication in front of an endpoint. Effective API protection depends on knowing which APIs exist, verifying who or what is accessing them, controlling permissions, protecting credentials and data, monitoring activity and removing unnecessary access throughout the API lifecycle.

Organizations therefore need a coordinated approach covering API discovery, authentication, authorization, data protection, secrets management, traffic controls, testing, monitoring, identity governance and lifecycle management.

This guide explains the most important API security best practices and how to build them into an effective API security strategy.

For the broader fundamentals, risks and security models behind these practices, see [Internal Link: API Security Guide].

What Are API Security Best Practices?

API security best practices are the technical, operational and governance measures organizations use to protect APIs, data and access throughout the API lifecycle.

These practices help organizations reduce vulnerabilities, prevent unauthorized activity, detect suspicious behavior and maintain appropriate access as APIs and identities change over time.

Strong API protection does not depend on a single security tool. Instead, it combines preventive, detective and governance controls that address different parts of the API environment.

OWASP’s API Security Project highlights risks including broken object-level authorization, broken authentication, unrestricted resource consumption and improper inventory management, demonstrating why API security needs controls at multiple layers.

Preventive Security Controls

Preventive controls aim to stop inappropriate or malicious activity before it reaches sensitive resources.

Examples include:

• Authentication
• Fine-grained authorization
• Encryption
• Input validation
• Rate limiting
• Least-privilege access

These controls establish who can interact with an API and what requests should be permitted.

Detective Security Controls

Detective controls help organizations identify suspicious behavior, vulnerabilities and deviations from expected API usage.

They can include:

• Logging
• Continuous monitoring
• API threat detection
• Vulnerability scanning
• Penetration testing
• Authorization testing

Detection becomes especially important when compromised credentials make malicious activity appear legitimate.

Governance Controls

Governance controls determine how APIs and related access are managed over time.

They include:

• API inventories
• Ownership
• Access policies
• Entitlement reviews
• Least-privilege governance
• Identity lifecycle management
• API retirement processes

Together, these three layers create a more complete approach to API security management.

Why API Security Best Practices Matter

API environments rarely remain static.

Development teams release new endpoints, cloud workloads change, SaaS integrations are added, services communicate through new machine identities and existing APIs evolve through multiple versions.

That constant change creates opportunities for security gaps.

A new API may reach production without being added to the central inventory. A service account may retain permissions long after its original integration has changed. An API key may remain active for years. A deprecated endpoint may continue accepting requests even though teams believe it has been retired.

Third-party integrations further increase complexity because external applications may require long-term access to enterprise APIs and sensitive information.

The same applies to machine identities. Applications, service accounts, workloads and automation often operate continuously and may accumulate permissions without the regular scrutiny applied to human users.

As a result, API security failures often occur because several small control gaps combine rather than because one security technology is completely absent.

An API might use HTTPS and strong authentication, for example, but still expose data because object-level authorization is weak. Another might enforce authorization correctly but remain vulnerable because an old version was never decommissioned.

This is why organizations need a structured API security strategy rather than disconnected point controls.

15 API Security Best Practices for Stronger API Protection

The following API security best practices provide a practical foundation for protecting APIs across development, deployment, runtime and governance.

1. Maintain a Complete Inventory of APIs

You cannot protect an API you do not know exists.

Organizations should maintain an up-to-date inventory covering:

• Production APIs
• Internal APIs
• Partner APIs
• Third-party APIs
• Development and test APIs
• Legacy APIs
• Shadow APIs
• Deprecated APIs

Each API should have identifiable ownership, business purpose, environment, exposure level and lifecycle status.

Inventory management also helps security teams identify endpoints operating outside normal development or security processes.

OWASP includes Improper Inventory Management in its API Security Top 10, reflecting the risk created when organizations lose visibility into API hosts, versions or endpoints.

API discovery should therefore be continuous rather than treated as a one-time documentation exercise.

[Internal Link: API Discovery]

2. Use Strong API Authentication

Authentication verifies the human or machine identity making an API request.

Depending on the environment and use case, appropriate mechanisms may include:

• OAuth 2.0
• OpenID Connect
• Client certificates
• Secure access tokens
• Workload identity mechanisms

Static API keys can still have valid uses, but poorly controlled or long-lived keys can create risk because they may be copied, exposed or retained without clear ownership.

Authentication methods should match the sensitivity of the API and the type of caller.

Organizations should also protect authentication flows against credential attacks and token misuse. OWASP identifies Broken Authentication as one of the current API Security Top 10 risks.

[Internal Link: API Authentication and Authorization]

3. Enforce Fine-Grained Authorization

Authentication answers who is making the request. Authorization determines what that identity is allowed to do.

APIs should verify access at the appropriate levels, including:

• Resources
• Functions
• Objects
• Object properties
• Sensitive data
• Administrative actions

A user who is authorized to retrieve one account should not automatically gain access to every account simply by changing an object identifier.

Similarly, an application authorized to read data should not receive update or delete permissions unless those actions are genuinely required.

Authorization should be evaluated wherever relevant instead of assuming that an authenticated identity can broadly access application resources.

OWASP’s current API Top 10 includes separate categories addressing broken authorization at object, property and function levels.

4. Apply the Principle of Least Privilege

Every user, application and machine identity should receive only the access required to perform its legitimate function.

This means avoiding unnecessarily broad scopes, administrative privileges and persistent access.

Where appropriate, organizations should consider:

• Minimum necessary permissions
• Role- or attribute-aligned access
• Time-bound access
• Reduced token scopes
• Removal of obsolete entitlements

Least privilege limits the potential impact of compromised credentials.

If an attacker compromises a service account with read-only access to one resource, the potential damage is far smaller than compromising an identity with broad administrative permissions across multiple APIs.

Least privilege should also be maintained continuously rather than applied only when access is first created.

5. Review API Access Regularly

Access that made sense six months ago may not make sense today.

Employees change roles. Projects finish. Vendors leave. Applications are retired. Service accounts outlive their original purpose.

Organizations should therefore review API-related access across:

• Users
• Applications
• Service accounts
• Privileged identities
• API entitlements
• Dormant identities
• Excessive permissions

Reviews help determine whether access remains justified and whether privileges should be reduced or removed.

SecurEnds supports user access reviews designed to help organizations identify unnecessary permissions and maintain least-privilege access. Its capabilities include access certification and review workflows across relevant application access.

[Internal Link: SecurEnds User Access Reviews]

6. Secure API Keys, Tokens and Secrets

Authentication credentials need their own protection strategy.

API keys, tokens, certificates, passwords and other secrets should not be hard-coded into repositories, scripts or publicly accessible application components.

Organizations should:

• Use appropriate secrets-management systems
• Restrict access to secrets
• Scope tokens according to purpose
• Rotate credentials
• Limit credential lifetime where practical
• Revoke compromised credentials quickly
• Remove credentials linked to retired integrations

Secrets management differs from authentication itself.

Authentication determines whether a credential proves identity. Secrets management protects the credential before, during and after its use.

Both are required.

7. Encrypt API Traffic and Sensitive Data

API communication should generally use HTTPS with current TLS protections so information cannot be easily intercepted while moving between clients, gateways and backend systems.

Organizations should also identify sensitive information that requires appropriate protection when stored.

Encryption is particularly important for APIs transmitting credentials, personal information, financial data and other confidential business information.

However, encryption should never be treated as a replacement for authorization. An encrypted request can still be unauthorized or malicious.

8. Validate All API Inputs

APIs should treat incoming information as untrusted until it has been validated.

Server-side validation should cover relevant:

• Query parameters
• URL parameters
• Request headers
• Request bodies
• Data types
• File uploads
• Structured objects

Applications should verify that input matches expected formats, lengths, ranges and types before processing it.

Poor validation can expose backend services to malformed requests, injection attacks and unexpected application behavior.

Validation should occur server-side because attackers can bypass frontend restrictions and construct API requests directly.

9. Apply Rate Limiting and Resource Controls

APIs can be automated at extremely high speeds.

Rate limits, quotas and resource controls help reduce:

• Automated abuse
• Credential attacks
• Brute-force attempts
• Scraping
• Resource exhaustion
• Denial-of-service conditions
• Excessive API consumption

Controls should reflect the nature of the API rather than relying on a universal threshold.

Authentication endpoints, expensive reporting operations and high-value transactional APIs may require different policies.

OWASP’s Unrestricted Resource Consumption category highlights the risk created when API requests can consume network, CPU, memory, storage or other resources without sufficient limits.

10. Minimize API Data Exposure

An API should return only the information necessary to complete the requested function.

Avoid automatically exposing entire internal objects when users or applications need only a small set of fields.

Pay particular attention to:

• Personally identifiable information
• Financial data
• Internal identifiers
• Administrative fields
• Security-related metadata
• Large response objects

Reducing unnecessary data exposure supports both security and privacy.

Authorization should also apply to individual properties where necessary. OWASP’s Broken Object Property Level Authorization category addresses inadequate controls that can result in unauthorized property exposure or modification.

11. Monitor and Log API Activity

Preventive controls cannot identify every compromised credential or unexpected behavior.

Organizations should log enough context to investigate API activity effectively.

Useful monitoring signals can include:

• Authentication failures
• Repeated authorization failures
• Unusual request volume
• Sensitive endpoint access
• Privileged actions
• Unexpected source patterns
• Abnormal data access
• Changes in typical identity behavior

Logs should provide sufficient identity, endpoint, timing and outcome context for investigation.

Monitoring can then help distinguish ordinary application behavior from potentially malicious or compromised activity.

[Internal Link: API Security Monitoring]

[Internal Link: API Threat Detection]

12. Test APIs Continuously

API security testing should occur throughout development rather than only immediately before launch.

Testing can include:

• Authentication testing
• Authorization testing
• Object-access testing
• Input validation
• Vulnerability scanning
• Penetration testing
• Business-logic testing
• Regression testing after major changes

Authorization deserves particular attention because a technically valid API request may still be inappropriate for the identity making it.

Automated scanning adds useful scale, but it should complement deeper testing rather than being treated as complete coverage.

Significant changes to code, schemas, permissions or authentication mechanisms should trigger renewed security validation.

[Internal Link: API Security Testing]

13. Secure Third-Party API Integrations

Trusting a vendor does not eliminate the need for access controls.

Organizations should understand what each external integration can access and why.

Third-party API security should include:

• Clearly defined ownership
• Scoped permissions
• Protected shared credentials
• Appropriate data access
• Vendor-access reviews
• Integration monitoring
• Revocation when access is no longer required

Responses received from external APIs should also be treated carefully.

OWASP’s Unsafe Consumption of APIs category emphasizes that developers may trust third-party API data more than user-provided input, even though an upstream service may be compromised or return unexpected information.

14. Govern Machine Identities and Service Accounts

Many API requests originate from systems rather than people.

Examples include:

• Applications
• Bots
• Cloud workloads
• Scripts
• Service accounts
• Automation platforms
• AI agents
• Integration identities

These non-human identities can become difficult to manage because they often operate continuously and may not follow the same joiner, mover and leaver processes as employees.

Each machine identity should have:

• Clear ownership
• Defined purpose
• Appropriate permissions
• Secure credentials
• Least-privilege access
• Credential lifecycle management
• Periodic access reviews

SecurEnds supports centralized inventory and ownership tracking for non-human identities and enables recurring access reviews using entitlement, usage-history and last-login information to identify dormant or overprivileged service accounts.

This makes machine identity governance particularly relevant to API security because valid automated credentials can otherwise maintain unnecessary access for long periods.

[Internal Link: Non-Human Identity Management]

15. Retire Deprecated and Unused APIs Securely

API decommissioning is a security process, not simply a documentation task.

When an API or version is no longer required, organizations should:

• Disable endpoints
• Revoke related API credentials
• Remove associated permissions
• Disable obsolete integrations
• Update the API inventory
• Remove unnecessary routing
• Verify that legacy versions are no longer reachable

Leaving deprecated APIs operational can preserve older authentication mechanisms, vulnerable dependencies or weaker security controls.

The final verification step is important: an API should not be considered retired until teams confirm it is technically inaccessible.

How to Build an Effective API Security Strategy

Individual best practices become more effective when organizations combine them into a structured API security strategy.

The objective is to create a repeatable process connecting APIs, identities, data, risk and security controls.

Step 1: Discover and Classify APIs

Begin by identifying APIs across development, internal, production, partner and cloud environments.

Classify them according to factors such as:

• Public or private exposure
• Business criticality
• Data sensitivity
• Lifecycle stage
• External dependencies

This helps teams focus resources according to actual risk.

Step 2: Identify API Users and Machine Identities

Determine who and what interacts with every important API.

Include employees and customers, but also applications, service accounts, workloads, automation and third-party integrations.

Every persistent non-human identity should have clear ownership.

Step 3: Map Permissions and Sensitive Data

Connect identity and API access through a simple model:

Identity → Permission → API → Resource → Data

This exposes relationships that endpoint-focused assessments can miss.

A technically secure endpoint may still create excessive risk if a machine identity has unnecessarily broad access to it.

Step 4: Assess API Risks

Prioritize APIs with characteristics such as:

• Internet exposure
• Sensitive information
• Administrative capabilities
• Privileged identities
• High business importance
• Third-party connectivity
• Legacy technology

Use those characteristics to determine where stronger controls or testing are needed.

Step 5: Define API Security Controls

For each risk category, identify appropriate API security controls covering authentication, authorization, encryption, validation, resource limits, monitoring and testing.

Controls should match risk rather than being applied identically to every endpoint.

Step 6: Establish Governance

Define API owners, security responsibilities, access-approval requirements, review frequency, remediation responsibilities and retirement processes.

Governance turns API security from an engineering task into an accountable organizational program.

Step 7: Continuously Test, Monitor and Improve

API security implementation is cyclical.

APIs change, users change, permissions change and new threats emerge.

Organizations should continuously discover, assess, test, monitor, review and improve controls rather than assuming an API remains secure because it passed an assessment months earlier.

API Security Controls: Preventive, Detective and Corrective

A mature API security framework uses preventive, detective and corrective controls together.

Each category has a different role.

Preventive Controls

Preventive controls aim to stop unauthorized or malicious activity before it creates an impact.

Examples include:

• Authentication
• Fine-grained authorization
• Encryption
• Input validation
• Rate limiting
• Least privilege
• Secure credential management

They reduce the likelihood that an inappropriate request can successfully reach sensitive API resources.

Detective Controls

Detective controls identify weaknesses or suspicious activity that preventive measures may not stop.

They include:

• API logging
• Security monitoring
• Threat detection
• Vulnerability scanning
• Access analytics
• Penetration testing

Detective controls are especially valuable when attackers use valid credentials or abuse legitimate business functionality.

Corrective Controls

Corrective controls reduce risk after a problem is identified.

Examples include:

• Revoking compromised credentials
• Removing unnecessary permissions
• Fixing vulnerable endpoints
• Blocking malicious requests
• Retiring exposed APIs
• Updating configurations
• Incident-response actions

No one category is sufficient.

Preventive controls reduce exposure. Detective controls reveal weaknesses or attacks. Corrective controls enable organizations to respond.

An effective set of API security measures therefore connects all three.

How API Security Fits Into Security Architecture

API security should operate across the wider security architecture rather than exist as an isolated technology layer.

A practical model includes six connected layers.

Identity layer: Authentication establishes human and machine identities, authorization determines permitted actions, and access governance helps keep permissions aligned with legitimate needs.

Application and API layer: Secure coding, request validation, object-level authorization and business-logic controls protect the API implementation itself.

Traffic layer: API gateways, throttling, routing controls and appropriate network protections manage how requests reach services.

Data layer: Encryption, data classification and response controls protect sensitive information in transit and where appropriate at rest.

Detection layer: Logging, threat detection, monitoring and security analytics identify abnormal activity and provide investigation context.

Governance layer: Policies, ownership, access reviews, lifecycle management and compliance requirements define how API risks are controlled over time.

API security architecture is strongest when these layers reinforce one another.

For example, monitoring becomes more useful when logs contain identity context, while least-privilege governance becomes more effective when API permissions are mapped to actual resources.

API Security Policies and Governance

API security policies translate technical security goals into repeatable organizational requirements.

An effective API security policy should define expectations for areas such as:

• API ownership
• API inventory requirements
• Authentication standards
• Authorization requirements
• Credential and secret handling
• Minimum encryption controls
• Access-review frequency
• Logging and monitoring
• Security testing
• Third-party API access
• Machine identities
• API decommissioning

Policies should establish minimum controls while allowing implementation to vary according to API risk and architecture.

For example, a public API handling sensitive financial information may require stronger authentication, monitoring and testing than an internal low-risk service.

Why Access Governance Matters

Endpoint protection answers only part of the API security problem.

Organizations also need to know:

• Who has API-related access?
• Why was that access granted?
• What entitlements does the identity hold?
• Is access still appropriate?
• Are privileges excessive?
• Should access be removed?

Access governance introduces accountability around those questions.

Without it, technically legitimate identities can retain unnecessary access even when the underlying authentication and API infrastructure are working correctly.

API Security Standards and Frameworks

Several established cybersecurity frameworks can help organizations shape API security requirements.

OWASP API Security Top 10

The OWASP API Security Top 10 focuses specifically on API-related security risks.

The current 2023 edition includes categories covering broken authorization, broken authentication, resource consumption, SSRF, misconfiguration, API inventory and unsafe API consumption.

NIST

NIST provides broader guidance relevant to identity, access control and Zero Trust.

Its Zero Trust architecture guidance shifts security away from reliance on static network perimeters and toward protecting users, assets and resources.

ISO 27001

ISO/IEC 27001 provides an information-security management framework organizations can use to structure risk management, policies, controls and continuous improvement.

API security activities can support the organization’s wider information-security management objectives.

PCI DSS

PCI DSS is relevant where APIs process, transmit or provide access to environments containing payment-card data.

Security requirements should be mapped according to the organization’s actual cardholder-data environment and scope.

For a detailed comparison of frameworks and requirements, see [Internal Link: API Security Standards].

API Security Checklist

Use the following API security checklist to evaluate whether key controls are being addressed across the environment.

API Discovery

• Are production, internal, partner and third-party APIs inventoried?
• Does each important API have a documented owner?
• Are shadow and undocumented APIs actively identified?
• Are deprecated API versions removed or clearly tracked?

Identity and Access

• Is appropriate authentication required for protected APIs?
• Is fine-grained authorization enforced?
• Are permissions aligned with least privilege?
• Are API-related entitlements reviewed periodically?
• Are service accounts and machine identities assigned owners?

Data Protection

• Is API traffic appropriately encrypted?
• Are sensitive responses limited to necessary data?
• Are API secrets stored securely?
• Can exposed or obsolete credentials be revoked quickly?

API Protection

• Are incoming requests validated server-side?
• Are appropriate rate and resource limits applied?
• Are sensitive functions protected with additional controls where necessary?
• Are abnormal requests and API usage patterns monitored?

Testing and Monitoring

• Are APIs security-tested throughout development?
• Is authorization testing included?
• Are relevant logs collected?
• Can suspicious activity be investigated using identity and endpoint context?
• Are significant changes followed by security regression testing?

Governance

• Are human and machine identities reviewed periodically?
• Are API security policies documented?
• Are unnecessary permissions remediated?
• Is API ownership maintained throughout the lifecycle?
• Is secure API retirement formally defined?

A checklist should support ongoing security operations rather than become a one-time compliance exercise.

Common API Security Mistakes to Avoid

Following best practices also means recognizing common assumptions that create gaps.

Relying Only on an API Gateway

API gateways provide valuable routing, authentication and traffic-management controls.

They do not automatically identify every authorization flaw, excessive entitlement, shadow API or application-logic weakness.

Assuming Authentication Equals Authorization

A valid identity is not automatically entitled to every API resource.

Authorization still needs to be checked at the object, property and function levels where appropriate.

Ignoring Machine Identities

Applications, bots and service accounts can possess powerful API access.

Leaving these identities without ownership, lifecycle management or periodic review creates unnecessary risk.

Hard-Coding API Credentials

Secrets stored in repositories, scripts or application code can be difficult to control and rotate.

Use appropriate secrets-management processes instead.

Leaving Legacy APIs Active

An old API can remain exploitable even when nobody actively uses it.

Retirement should include technical verification that the endpoint has been disabled.

Giving Applications Excessive Permissions

Broad scopes simplify development but increase the potential damage from compromised application credentials.

Permissions should match actual functional requirements.

Testing Only Before Production

A secure release can become vulnerable after changes to code, dependencies, configuration or access.

Testing should continue throughout the API lifecycle.

Failing to Review Access

Access naturally accumulates over time.

Without recurring reviews, stale or excessive permissions can remain indefinitely even when every API security appliance operates correctly.

How Identity Governance Supports API Security Best Practices

Identity governance does not replace API gateways, runtime protections, vulnerability testing or API threat detection.

Instead, it strengthens API security by addressing a different question:

Is the identity reaching the API still supposed to have that level of access?

Traditional API controls may establish that a token is valid and a request conforms to technical policy. Governance evaluates the broader access relationship behind that request.

It helps security teams answer:

• Who currently has access?
• What entitlements does each identity hold?
• Why was access granted?
• Is it still required?
• Are privileges excessive?
• Has access been reviewed?
• Can unnecessary access be removed?

Access Reviews

Periodic access reviews allow relevant owners and managers to evaluate whether permissions remain appropriate.

This helps identify outdated, dormant or excessive access rather than allowing entitlement decisions to persist indefinitely.

Least-Privilege Governance

Least privilege requires continuous maintenance.

Governance processes can identify accumulated permissions and trigger changes that bring access closer to actual responsibilities.

Identity Lifecycle Management

Access should change when identities or business relationships change.

When an employee changes roles, a vendor engagement ends or an integration is retired, permissions should be adjusted accordingly.

Machine Identity Governance

The same principles apply to non-human access.

SecurEnds supports centralized inventory and recurring reviews for service accounts and other non-human identities, helping organizations identify dormant or overprivileged access.

Identity governance therefore complements API security technologies by reducing inappropriate legitimate access, not by replacing endpoint security.

How SecurEnds Helps Strengthen Access Governance

SecurEnds helps organizations strengthen the identity and access-governance layer that supports broader API security programs.

Its User Access Review capabilities enable managers, entitlement owners and application owners to review access and identify permissions that should no longer remain active.

SecurEnds also provides identity visibility that can help organizations identify excessive permissions and orphaned accounts.

For non-human identities, SecurEnds supports centralized service-account inventory, ownership tracking and periodic access reviews that use entitlement and usage context to identify dormant or overprivileged service accounts.

Application-access workflows can also connect access requests with Identity Lifecycle Management and maintain records of access changes and approvals.

The distinction is important:

API security technologies protect APIs against vulnerabilities, attacks and misuse; identity governance helps organizations ensure legitimate human and machine identities do not retain inappropriate access.

Together, these controls help support a more complete approach to API risk.

[Internal Link: SecurEnds User Access Reviews]

[Internal Link: SecurEnds Identity Governance]

[Internal Link: SecurEnds Non-Human Identity Management]

Build API Security Around Continuous Control

Strong API protection does not come from one product or one security checkpoint.

Organizations need a repeatable lifecycle:

Discover → Authenticate → Authorize → Protect → Test → Monitor → Govern → Review

API inventories provide visibility. Authentication establishes identity. Authorization and least privilege control access. Encryption, validation and traffic controls protect interactions. Testing and monitoring reveal weaknesses and suspicious activity. Governance keeps human and machine access appropriate as the environment changes.

For a broader explanation of API risks, OWASP guidance, Zero Trust, testing and API security technologies, see the [Internal Link: Complete API Security Guide].

Organizations looking to strengthen the identity-governance component of their security strategy can also explore how SecurEnds supports access reviews, entitlement visibility and governance for human and non-human identities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are API security best practices?

API security best practices are the technical, operational and governance measures used to protect APIs, data and access throughout the API lifecycle.

Key practices include API discovery, strong authentication, fine-grained authorization, least privilege, secure credential management, encryption, input validation, rate limiting, monitoring, continuous testing and access governance.

How can organizations ensure API security?

Organizations can improve API security by first maintaining visibility into all APIs and then applying security controls according to risk.

A strong approach combines authentication, authorization, encryption, validation, traffic controls, monitoring, testing and lifecycle management. Organizations should also review human and machine access periodically so obsolete or excessive permissions do not remain active.

What should an API security checklist include?

An API security checklist should cover API inventory, ownership, authentication, authorization, least privilege, secrets management, encryption, input validation, rate limiting, data exposure, logging, monitoring, security testing, machine identity governance and secure API retirement.

The checklist should be reviewed regularly rather than used only during initial deployment.

How do you build an effective API security strategy?

Start by discovering and classifying APIs, identifying human and machine identities, mapping permissions to API resources and sensitive data, and prioritizing high-risk APIs.

Then define appropriate preventive and detective controls, establish ownership and access-governance requirements, and continuously test, monitor and improve the environment.

What are the most important API security controls?

Important API security controls include strong authentication, fine-grained authorization, least privilege, encryption, secure secrets management, input validation, rate limiting, logging, threat monitoring and continuous security testing.

Mature programs also include governance and corrective measures such as access reviews, credential revocation and permission remediation.

How does identity governance improve API security?

Identity governance strengthens API security by helping organizations understand which human and non-human identities have access, what permissions they hold and whether that access remains appropriate.

Access reviews, entitlement visibility, lifecycle management and remediation support least privilege and reduce the risk created by stale, dormant or excessive permissions.