Security of APIs
Modern websites employ detailed controls, often interacting with multiple web services such as online payment processors, social media platforms, and shipping providers. To smooth these communications, allow apps to directly talk to each other via function calls.
Think of an API as a special phone line directly connected to a service’s “brain.” By using the right codes (called function calls), you can make the service do things such as post updates on social media or check product availability. For example, you might have a system automating orders from a third party. The third party will set up an API for their inventory system and provide the documentation telling you how to code requests, as well as a key or token to use when making the request. The following is an example. GET is the method used to make a request. 12345 is the product code and /availability is the request to check whether the product is in stock. YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN is the...
