How do you design and test your EAI APIs and microservices for security by default and by design?

1 Security by default

Security by default is essential for configuring and deploying EAI APIs and microservices with the most secure settings and options. Best practices include using HTTPS and TLS encryption for all endpoints, enforcing certificate validation and pinning, applying the principle of least privilege and minimal exposure for access control, using tokens, keys, or certificates for authentication and authorization, implementing rate limiting, throttling, and logging for requests, using firewalls, proxies, or gateways to filter malicious traffic, and using secure coding standards and frameworks to avoid common vulnerabilities.

2 Security by design

Security by design means that your EAI APIs and microservices are designed and developed with security in mind from the start, making it an integral part of your development lifecycle and architecture. To ensure security, you should conduct threat modeling and risk assessments to identify assets, actors, actions, and attacks that may affect them. Additionally, define and document security requirements and policies for API and microservice functionalities, then use them as a basis for design and testing. Furthermore, adopt a secure development methodology such as DevSecOps that incorporates security activities and tools into every stage of the development pipeline. Lastly, apply the principle of defense in depth with multiple layers of security controls and mechanisms, such as encryption, hashing, signing, verification, auditing, and monitoring.

3 Security testing

Security testing is a process of verifying and validating that EAI APIs and microservices meet security expectations and standards, and are free from any security flaws or weaknesses that may compromise their integrity, confidentiality, or availability. To ensure security, automated and manual testing tools and techniques should be used to perform different types of security tests on API and microservice endpoints, such as static analysis, dynamic analysis, penetration testing, fuzzing, and vulnerability scanning. Additionally, realistic and representative data and scenarios should be used for security testing to simulate attack vectors and methods that may exploit API and microservice vulnerabilities. Lastly, a feedback loop should be employed with a continuous improvement approach for security testing in order to identify and prioritize security issues as well as implement and verify security fixes and enhancements.

4 Security monitoring

Security monitoring is a process of observing and analyzing the behavior and performance of EAI APIs and microservices in real time or near real time, and detecting and responding to any security incidents or anomalies that may occur. To ensure the security of your API and microservice endpoints, use metrics, indicators, and alerts to measure the security status and health. Additionally, log, trace, and event data should be collected to store security-related information and activities. Dashboards, reports, and visualizations can be used to display security-related data and insights. Finally, incident response and recovery procedures should be in place to handle any security breaches or disruptions.

5 Security review

Security review is the process of evaluating and assessing the overall security posture and maturity of your EAI APIs and microservices, and identifying and addressing any security gaps or opportunities for improvement. To ensure best practices, standards, frameworks, and guidelines should be used to benchmark security performance against industry practices and compliance requirements, such as OWASP, NIST, ISO, or GDPR. Audits, assessments, and certifications can also be used to verify security practices against criteria and objectives. Finally, feedback, recommendations, and action plans should be implemented to improve security practices based on the results of the review.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?