Shift Left to Safeguard Powerful APIs for GIS and Government Agencies
In today's digital age, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become indispensable tools for state and local governments. From urban planning to emergency management, GIS applications help streamline operations, improve decision making, and enhance public services.
The driving force behind these powerful GIS solutions? Application programming interfaces, or APIs. They are revolutionizing how agencies manage, share, and analyze geographic data, leading to more efficient and effective governance.
APIs act as bridges that connect different software applications, enabling them to communicate and share data seamlessly. For state and local governments, this means that various departments can integrate GIS capabilities into their existing workflows without the need for complex and expensive software overhauls. It also means that the use of APIs has grown significantly.
The increasing reliance on APIs has not gone unnoticed by cybercriminals. Recognizing the critical role that APIs play, attackers are constantly targeting them, aiming to exploit, abuse, and compromise them to gain access to systems and exfiltrate critical data. Compounding the issue is that many local agencies, including counties, lack the necessary expertise to even identify which APIs are being sabotaged to access their systems.
The above scenario poses serious risks, including large-scale data breaches, compliance issues, and hefty regulatory fines. But state and local agencies are highly motivated to take on the added risk of leveraging GIS systems and their vast API networks, simply because of the enhanced efficiency and productivity, greater data sharing and collaboration, cost savings, and significantly improved analytical capabilities that APIs bring.
In this article, we explore the transformative benefits of shifting left for state and local government agencies and why it represents the next big moment in their API security journey.
Through early discovery directly from the codebase, comprehensive understanding, and preemptive documentation, agencies can fortify their defenses, close critical gaps in visibility, improve controls, satisfy compliance and regulators, and set a new standard for API security in an industry where the stakes are extremely high.
What exactly is shifting left and why does it matter?
The concept of “shifting left” in the security paradigm is not just a trend; it's becoming a necessity for ensuring robust protection and risk management. This is especially true for APIs as they change more frequently than traditional web apps and new ones are being added at a much faster pace.
Simply put, by only focusing on traditional security controls such as in-line traffic analysis, organizations find themselves without the ability to see and understand the weaknesses across their entire attack surface. This leaves organizations vulnerable, and nowhere is this more evident than in the realm of APIs within state and local governments, where blind spots can spell disaster. Vulnerabilities and security gaps are always harder and more expensive to fix in production, and any code change has the possibility of introducing additional risks.
Shifting left: New solutions for enhanced vulnerability detection
The challenge of app and API security solution management already is overwhelming and complex for most organizations. In fact, a recent F5-sponsored Datos Insights report found that more than 80 solution providers operate in the API security space alone, and that the average organization uses more than 20,000 APIs! As a result, organizations often use a patchwork of technologies from various vendors to protect apps and APIs—effectively turning API security into supply chain security.
With that in mind, here are some considerations for what to look for in a “shift left” solution for API security:
- Code-level discovery through scanning, recon, and testing abilities, enabling earlier detection of CVEs and API risks in code
- Intelligent and automated security responses—powered by generative AI
- Automatic creation and validation of robust API schemas
- Insightful illumination of API risks with actionable intelligence
- Full lifecycle API security—work with a solution that is part of a wider portfolio of app and API security and delivery capabilities across the entire app development lifecycle
The proactive approach at the core of the shift-left concept enables quicker and more accurate identification of discrepancies, shadow APIs, and other issues. This method is far superior to ad-hoc approaches that may omit documentation or lack a comprehensive understanding from the ground up. Embracing the shift-left strategy with the right technologies in place not only upgrades security, but also streamlines the entire development lifecycle so both application and risk teams win, making it an essential practice for forward-thinking state and local government agencies.
Learn more about how shifting left can help your department or agency.
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