The One API Security Practice No One Talks About (But Should)

Hey hackers and builders,

You’ve heard it all before:

✅ Validate inputs
✅ Use OAuth
✅ Monitor traffic
✅ Lock down sensitive data

All good advice. All absolutely necessary. But there’s one API security practice that almost never gets the spotlight… and yet it’s the reason so many breaches still happen.

Ready?

Inventory. Yes, boring ol’ API inventory.

“Wait… that’s it?”

Yes. But hear me out.

You can’t protect what you don’t know exists.
You can’t monitor what you haven’t documented.
You can’t secure something that’s living in the shadows.

And guess what?

Most organisations have no clue how many APIs they’re actually running.

Don’t take my word for it, a 2023 report from Enterprise Management Associates, reveals that only 10% of organizations fully document their APIs, leading to potential sprawl issues.

The real problem: API sprawl

Between microservices, third-party integrations, internal tooling, and “temporary” endpoints that never got decommissioned… you’ve probably got APIs running right now that:

• Were spun up 9 months ago by a team that no longer exists

• Still have keys hardcoded for “testing”

• Expose sensitive data without rate limiting

• Have zero authentication

• And aren’t being monitored by anyone

And those are the ones an attacker will love to find.

Shadow APIs: The biggest liability you’re not seeing

Security tools are great—when they know what to look for.
But your scanner isn’t checking that internal GraphQL endpoint the dev team built for a quick hackathon project… and never told anyone about.

That’s your real attack surface: the undocumented, unmanaged, forgotten APIs floating around.

So what should you actually do?

Start building a living, breathing API inventory. Not a one-time Excel sheet. Not a “we’ll get to it later” backlog item. A real, dynamic inventory that gives you:

• What APIs exist

• Who owns them

• What data they touch

• How they’re secured (or not)

• When they were last tested/updated

Even better? Integrate this into your CI/CD pipeline so it evolves with your codebase.

Pro tip:

If your API inventory doesn't scare you a little at first… it's probably incomplete.

Wrapping up

The best API security tip anyone can give to you is API visibility.

Because until you know what you’ve got, all the token rotations, WAF rules, and auth layers in the world won’t save you from the API you forgot existed.

Need help untangling your API spaghetti?

👉 Book a free consultation with me here.
👉 Follow me on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the latest in API security.

See you in the next one. 🔥

Talk soon,
Damilola