What is API Discovery? Everything You Need to Know

APIs are integral to the modern digital ecosystem, underpinning the functionality of numerous applications and services through distributed architectures, which significantly increases their traffic and complexity. API discovery, which involves identifying and cataloging APIs within a digital ecosystem, is crucial for maintaining visibility over both documented and undocumented interfaces. This process prevents redundant development, enhances collaboration, and mitigates security risks by revealing hidden APIs that could potentially expose vulnerabilities. While manual methods of API discovery, such as code reviews and network traffic analysis, can be labor-intensive and prone to oversight, automated tools provide a more comprehensive and efficient solution by scanning systems and analyzing network patterns. These tools help organizations manage their API inventories more effectively, ensuring improved security and compliance while fostering innovation through the streamlined integration of new APIs. StackHawk offers an advanced platform for continuous API discovery, emphasizing the detection of vulnerabilities across an organization's entire API inventory, which is essential for building robust and secure applications.