Why is Robust API Security Crucial in eCommerce?

API attacks are on the rise. One of their major targets is
eCommerce firms like yours.

APIs are a vital part of how eCommerce businesses are
accelerating their growth in the digital world.

ECommerce platforms use APIs at all customer touchpoints, from
displaying products to handling shipping. Owing to their increased
use, APIs are attractive targets for hackers, as the following
numbers expose:

• API attack traffic increased by 681% in 2021^[1]
• 77% of retail respondents experienced API security incidents in
  2021– according to Noname security^[2]

If left unaddressed, API abuse can damage your reputation, harm
consumers, and affect the bottom line. Hence API security^[3] is worthy of
consideration for eCommerce stakeholders.

Why do eCommerce companies need APIs?

API makes it easy for retailers and eCommerce platforms to
handle product listings and orders. It transformed the static
website into a completely customizable headless store. Retailers
use APIs for various functions, including login, product catalog,
shipping, and subscription.

It empowers businesses to enhance customer experience. While
making purchases, one service handles orders; another calculates
tax; another enables shipping, and so on.

But customers have no idea what is happening behind the screen.
API connects these decoupled elements and helps to share data
seamlessly.

Key benefits of APIs in eCommerce

• It streamlines operations and ensures seamless customer
  engagements
• It is effective for data monitoring and analytics, a vibrant
  factor for retailers
• It enables communication with chatbots
• Connects eCommerce platform with 3rd party marketplaces

Why Is API Security Crucial for
Ecommerce?

APIs are easy to use and integrate for businesses. Even though
most APIs are not intended for public use, they often have full
access to all sensitive assets and information.

Customers enter PII while purchasing on online sites like
emails, passwords, credit card details, and phone numbers. They
also share transaction details like bonuses, balances, and rewards.
This increases the opportunity for attackers to steal the data.

They are easy to expose if not designed and tuned for robust,
ongoing security. Inadequate security testing and a lack of
business logic have resulted in an overall rise in API security
risks.

Important factors that drive API security concerns are

Authentication Flaw

Many APIs not properly checking if the request comes from a
legitimate user. Hackers find coding errors in authentication and
escalate privileges. They further use enumerated technologies to
compromise users’ accounts.

For instance, some eCommerce platforms integrate with external
logistics systems to pass on shipping details. In this situation,
if there is an insufficient authentication chain, API can leak PII
via replay attacks.

Automated Attacks

Automated attacks on insecure APIs are increasing with the
widespread adoption of APIs. Rather than exploiting vulnerabilities
in APIs code, hackers exploit business logic flaws within APIs.

They may feed malicious scripts into bots to access your product
details at scale.

With bad bots overwhelming your site, your genuine user cannot
shop on your site. For example, they can snatch the complete
inventory of high-demand products within seconds.

Volumetric attacks against eCommerce API without rate limiting
(#4 in OWASP API Security Top
10^[4]) can cause shopping apps
non-responsive, resulting in user dissatisfaction.

Shadow and Zombie APIs

Still, many businesses struggle to separate real transactions
from fake. They are also blindsided by unprotected shadow APIs.

Equally, Zombie APIs are the most common method of attack.
Zombie APIs may longer be unmonitored. They can contain malicious
codes or may expose sensitive data or functionality.

Third-party APIs

E-commerce businesses integrate with 3rd parties like shipping
and payment systems. Third-party APIs are challenging to manage.
These are the ones that attackers typically target.

For example, shopping cart API is a prime target as it offers
entry points into the business. A leading UK retailer experienced
attacks more than 1000 times a day on this API. The attack
increased 10-fold times when special offers were running.

Traditional Security Tools

Most businesses lack adequate defense capabilities to protect
against the ever-evolving API risks. API threats are highly
sophisticated and persistent, and traditional methods are
ineffective against them.

Legacy WAF or API gateways need more real-time ability to
understand bad from good API activity.

Hackers can manipulate the discount and promotion APIs during
peak times. These tools find it hard to protect against such
attacks.

You will need comprehensive API protection solutions like
AppTrana^[5]
to protect your website and customers’ sensitive information.

API Security Best Practices for Ecommerce

The API threats to eCommerce security are potentially
devastating to retailers and customers. For this reason, you must
take appropriate measures to address them.

API Discovery

The first step is to understand what you have in your API
landscape. An inventory of all APIs, including undocumented APIs,
is essential if you want to secure what you don’t know about.

API discovery involves finding and inventorying APIs. 67% of the retail respondents^[6] say they lack visibility
on API inventory. A good API security solution offers strong API
discovery features. It automatically inventories all APIs,
including Zombie and shadow APIs.

Make sure zombie APIs are turned off. After the last customer
stops integrating with a deprecated API, ensure the API is turned
off. If you’re going to publish API documentation externally, make
sure it’s valid and tested, and it’s not exposing
vulnerabilities.

API Security Testing and Penetration
Testing

Integrate API security at the early stage of the development
process. Security enhancement and vulnerability management are key
aspects of your API development. Use API security scanners (e.g.,
Infinite API Scanner) for smooth API vulnerability scans. Make sure
to patch the identified vulnerabilities immediately.

In addition to automated API scanning tools, manual pen testing
is vital. It helps you to detect misconfiguration that could
otherwise go unseen.

Proper Authentication and Authorization

Validating purchasers who they are and only allowing access to
specific resources they have permission for is essential in API
security.

OAuth 2.0, API keys, and Token based authentication are a few
API authentication methods to verify users’ identity.

API Rate Limiting

According to data^[7], there were 28 API
endpoints in 2020 and 89 in 2021, a three-fold increase in API
endpoints. A similar increase in API calls is logical. There was a
141% increase in API calls in H1 2021. There has been a
corresponding increase in attack surfaces.

Attackers can make eCommerce sites unavailable for legitimate
purchasers with DDoS attacks. With API rate limiting, you can limit
the number of requests from overwhelming system resources. It can
throttle the request that exceeds the limits. It enables you to
make your site available for purchasers without impacting
performance.

API Behaviour and Analytics

Leverage API protection solution to look for abnormal behaviour
in API traffic. Differentiating malicious traffic from normal API
traffic can help to detect attacks in progress.

It also highlights system misbehaviors and other malicious
disruptions to your service. It analyzes traffic metadata to
pinpoint the attack source. You can use this information to stop
the incident and fix the issue in API.

Tips to protect your eCommerce Site

• Make sure all third-party integrations and plugins are
  regularly inspected
• Help your customers to create strong, unique passwords
• Ensure that only necessary customer data is stored
• Always keep your site up-to-date
• Secure your website with HTTPS
• Keep a backup of your data

Ecommerce Security: Plan Ahead to Stay
Safe

An increase in API usage has increased the attack surface, which
leaves eCommerce businesses vulnerable. It calls for the immediate
requirement to mitigate the API security risks mentioned above.

Failing to secure an eCommerce platform can directly impact
sales. It ruins your reputation. Take immediate measures to win
your API security platform.