APIs often provide development teams the support needed to deal with many microservices-specific problems. For instance, they can act as a mechanism that decouples the business logic from the user interface, replicate application functions for reuse, or even isolate functionality for simplified testing and deployment.

Secure your API with these 16 Practices

 1. Authentication 🕵️♀️ - Verifies the identity of users accessing APIs.  

2. Authorization 🚦 - Determines permissions of authenticated users.  

3. Data Redaction 🖍️ - Obscures sensitive data for protection.  

4. Encryption 🔒 - Encodes data so only authorized parties can decode it.  

5. Error Handling ❌ - Manages responses when things go wrong, avoiding revealing sensitive info. 

6. Input Validation & Data Sanitization 🧹 - Checks input data and removes harmful parts.  

7. Intrusion Detection Systems 👀 - Monitor networks for suspicious activities.  

8. IP Whitelisting 📝 - Permits API access only from trusted IP addresses.  

9. Logging and Monitoring 🖥️ - Keeps detailed logs and regularly monitors APIs. 

10. Rate Limiting ⏱️ - Limits user requests to prevent overload. 

11. Secure Dependencies 📦 - Ensures third-party code is free from vulnerabilities. 

12. Security Headers 📋 - Enhances site security against types of attacks like XSS. 

13. Token Expiry ⏳ - Regularly expiring and renewing tokens prevents unauthorized access. 

14. Use of Security Standards and Frameworks 📘 - Guides your API security strategy. 

15. Web Application Firewall 🔥 - Protects your site from HTTP-specific attacks. 

16. API Versioning 🔄 - Maintains different versions of your API for seamless updates.