An API security posture assessment systematically evaluates how well an organization can prevent, identify, respond to, and recover from API threats. It should begin before a breach, investment review, or regulatory audit. section 2.1
Use the assessment to check whether these areas are mature and continuously maintained:
- Data inventory and sensitive endpoints section 2.1
- Exposed endpoints, API versions, and unknown attack surface section 2.1
- Authentication, authorization, access controls, and secure implementation section 2.1
- Security testing, risk analysis, incident detection, and response planning section 2.1
A practical maturity check
Ask whether the attack surface is completely mapped and current, whether controls are continuously updated, and whether malicious activity can be detected automatically. Record mature or not mature, then address gaps such as undocumented APIs or technical debt. section 2.1 section 2.7
Table 2.1 API security posture evaluation questionnaire1
|
Mature
|
Not mature
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
Data inventory
Is your data inventory up to date and continuously updated?
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Attack surface
Is your attack surface completely mapped and always up to date?
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Authentication and authorization
Do you follow best practices and standards for authentication and authorization?
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Access controls
Do you have secure and strict access controls, and are they continuously updated?
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Secure implementation
Do you use secure design and implementation patterns?
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Security testing
Do you continuously test your APIs for security?
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Risk analysis
Have you mapped out your API business risks, and are they continuously updated?
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Incident detection
Do you have proper API observability and automated detection of malicious activity?
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Incident response plan
Do you have a detailed response plan for security breaches, and is it continuously updated?
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Training and awareness
Do you continuously train your staff on API security?
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
1Answer yes only when you’re 100% into a category. If you’ve mapped 95% of your attack surface, for example, that’s still
no, and if your data inventory is updated regularly but not continuously on every change, that’s still
no.
|
||
Use the API security posture evaluation questionnaire as a compact checklist for comparing maturity across control areas. section 2.1
