Personas workflow ↗

Abstract

Cortex API security distributes responsibilities across SOC analysts, security practitioners, and workload owners.

The workflow outlines the responsibilities of each persona to detect, assess, protect, and secure the API assets across the organization, focusing on the main API security elements:

  • Visibility

  • Posture Management & Risk Profiling

  • Threat Detection & Response

SOC analyst

Responsibility: Real-time threat detection & response

The SOC analyst is the key to identifying and investigating API vulnerabilities and attacks within an organization.

Steps:

  1. Visibility: Reviews the Cases & Issues module for new attacks.

  2. Investigate: Select a case or an issue, analyze involved APIs and their context, analyze request/response details, and distinguish normal from malicious activity.

    To conduct a deeper investigation to eliminate or contain the threat, investigate the security issue

  3. Decide and Act: Determine if it's a true attack. If so, initiate an immediate response (often outside the UI) and flag for fixes. Close the case in the UI.

Security practitioner

Responsibility: Proactive posture management & risk reduction

The security practitioner uses the UI for continuous risk assessment and orchestration of remediation.

Steps:

  1. Overview of API landscape: In the API Security Management dashboard, review emerging threats and understand the overall security of the API landscape.

  2. Analyze APIs and Risks: Navigate to API endpoints to view all APIs, their risk factors (e.g., internet exposure, sensitive data, authentication/encryption status), and posture issues. Drill down for details.

  3. Manage OpenAPI Specifications: Access the OpenAPI specification files. Review findings on the specification file itself (misconfigurations) and verify API traffic conformance to its specification.

  4. Assign Remediation: Consolidate all findings, group them by application owner, and distribute tasks (via email/tickets with timelines) for fixes (code, gateway, specification updates).

Workload owner

Responsibility: Application security accountability

The workload owner acts on security tasks, primarily outside the UI.

Steps:

  1. Receive Tasks: Get detailed security tasks and timelines from the security practitioner.

  2. Implement Fixes: Apply necessary fixes to application code, API configurations, or OpenAPI specifications.

  3. Ensure Compliance: Bring their APIs and assets into alignment with security standards.