Facts for Prelims (FFP)
Source: HT
Context: CERT-In and CSIRT-Fin’s whitepaper on API security is a step in the right direction.
What is API?
| Aspect | Description |
| Definition | APIs facilitate communication between software components by providing a set of definitions and protocols. For instance, a weather app on your phone communicates with the weather bureau’s software system through APIs to display daily weather updates. |
| Importance | Integral for innovation in the digital sphere, empowering seamless integration and interoperability. |
| Usage | Widely used in various industries, including finance, healthcare, e-commerce, social media, and more. |
| Functionality | Allows applications to access and interact with the features or data of other applications or platforms. |
| Types | Includes Web APIs, RESTful APIs, SOAP APIs, GraphQL APIs, and more, catering to different use cases. |
| Benefits | Enhances efficiency, accelerates development, fosters collaboration, and enables cross-platform integration. |
| Security Challenges | Vulnerabilities include data breaches, unauthorized access, injection attacks, and denial-of-service attacks. |
| Security Measures | Implementing strong authentication, encryption, rate-limiting, input validation, and regular cyber security audits. |
| Emerging Technologies | Integration with artificial intelligence (AI) for anomaly detection, predictive analytics, and threat mitigation. |
| Future Trends | Increasing adoption of APIs in the Internet of Things (IoT), AI, machine learning, and blockchain technologies for enhanced functionality. |
| Government initiatives | Open Government Data platform (it has over 1 lakh APIs); API Setu |
| Policy on Open Application Programming (government’s approach to the use of Open APIs to promote software interoperability) | |
| National Data Governance Policy (aims to standardize APIs for secure data management) | |
| National Data and Analytics Platform (or NDAP) (NITI Aayog’s initiative that hosts datasets from across India) |
