8 best practices for securing RESTful APIs

<p>Web app developers often use REST APIs to bridge the gap between the database and the front of the application, which interacts with the end user. While RESTful APIs provide critical functionality, their popularity and power also make them a favorite target for bad actors.</p>
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<p>The key to protecting RESTful APIs is to keep the security simple. Do not get caught up in thinking that more is better, as this only increases the attack surface for cyber criminals to exploit.</p>
<section class=”section main-article-chapter” data-menu-title=”What is a REST API?”>
<h2 class=”section-title”><i class=”icon” data-icon=”1″></i>What is a REST API?</h2>
<p>REST APIs use the REST, or <a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchapparchitecture/definition/REST-REpresentational-State-Transfer”>REpresentational State Transfer</a>, architectural style to enable communication between application types.</p>
<p>Developers use REST to create and deploy web applications. REST can be customized to establish the criteria for how information and data should be stored and transmitted to the end user.</p>
<p>Four methods are associated with the RESTful API:</p>
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<li><b>GET</b>: This specifies how resources should be made accessible to the end user.</li>
<li><b>POST</b>: This describes how information an end user submits — for example, via a website’s “Contact Us” page — should be sent to the database.</li>
<li><b>PUT</b>: This updates the information that currently resides in the records of the database. For instance, this functionality would allow a customer to add a new payment method to a credit card portal.</li>
<li><b>DELETE</b>: This erases records in the database. When a customer submits a payment, for example, but then goes back and cancels it, doing so would invoke the delete functionality.</li>
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<section class=”section main-article-chapter” data-menu-title=”Best practices in RESTful API security”>
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