Securing your API gateway with TLS

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is crucial for securing API gateways by encrypting data to protect it from unauthorized access and ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of data in transit. TLS, the successor to the deprecated SSL protocol, is used to secure both downstream communications between clients and the gateway and upstream communications between the gateway and backend services. By employing TLS, organizations can safeguard against eavesdropping and meet regulatory compliance requirements, especially in sectors like banking where API attacks are prevalent. Mutual TLS authentication further enhances security by ensuring both parties in a connection authenticate each other, preventing man-in-the-middle attacks. Implementing TLS involves creating and managing certificates, with options to use public or private certificate authorities depending on the desired level of control. API gateways, such as Tyk, support configurations for TLS and mutual TLS (mTLS) to establish secure connections, with features like certificate pinning and support for HTTP/2. The latest version, TLS 1.3, offers improved security by removing outdated cryptographic features and speeding up handshakes, making it vital for staying ahead of evolving security threats.