Ahead of the weekend, MMW learned that Distil Networks — a global leader in bot detection and mitigation — announced Bot Defense for API, a new solution that prevents bots from accessing the API servers that power public-facing websites and mobile applications.
Distil says it now protects these API servers by determining whether a human is using a verified browser or mobile device to gain access.
“Distil goes beyond competing web-only solutions by providing the only comprehensive bot defense platform to protect websites, mobile apps and API servers from advanced persistent bots,” the official announcement reads.
Bots are used by competitors, hackers and fraudsters and are the key culprits behind web scraping, brute force attacks, competitive data mining, online fraud, account hijacking, data theft, unauthorized vulnerability scans, spam, digital ad fraud and downtime. Bots vary in volume and sophistication, but all place an increasing burden on IT security and web infrastructure teams and wreak havoc across online operations big and small.
“While usage of APIs to drive web and mobile apps is exploding, the security of those APIs remains a grave concern, with 21% of APIs going live without any input from security professionals,” said Rami Essaid, CEO and co-founder of Distil Networks. “Distil believes that the benefits of APIs shouldn’t come at the expense of security, which is why we have released Bot Defense for Web API and Mobile Apps. Now, the API server that powers your website or mobile app is also protected against advanced persistent bots.”
