The 4 Pillars of API Security

White Paper by apidays

“The 4 Pillars of API Security: Implementing a Strategy for API Security in 2025” is a comprehensive white paper published by APIDays and sponsored by Data Theorem. It presents a modern, strategic framework to address growing API security challenges in an era dominated by cloud-native architectures and generative AI. The paper outlines four essential pillars for a robust API security strategy:

  1. Discovery – Building and maintaining a complete API inventory to uncover shadow, zombie, and undocumented APIs.

  2. Posture Management & ASPM – Applying API security best practices and contextual infrastructure awareness to reduce risk.

  3. Testing with Context – Performing continuous, environment-aware security testing using SAST, DAST, BOLA, IDOR, and SSRF methods.

  4. Observability & Runtime – Implementing real-time monitoring and threat detection to mitigate ongoing attacks and misuse.

The document stresses that AI alone is not a silver bullet for API security and urges a disciplined, weekly investment of time to build layered defenses. It also includes practical checklists, compliance metrics, and examples of security lapses, helping businesses proactively secure their APIs across environments.

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