This whitepaper explains how NIST SP 800-53 provides a comprehensive, risk-based framework for protecting sensitive information and why API security is essential to meeting its controls. As APIs increasingly connect systems and expose sensitive data, they directly affect multiple control families, including access control, audit and accountability, configuration management, incident response, system integrity, and risk assessment. The paper shows how strong API security supports least-privilege access, encrypted data flows, continuous monitoring, and detailed logging, all central to NIST requirements. It also highlights the challenge of shadow and zombie APIs, which undermine inventory accuracy and governance. The paper concludes that continuous API discovery, posture management, behaviora

Join for free to read