Availability and safety are some of the most important implicit factors to the user experience of your platform’s users. When we discuss web security to ensure these factors, images of criminal rings using sophisticated techniques come to mind. Even if your data seems too low of worth for this scenario, perhaps the over-caffeinated, zit-faced script kiddie wreaking havoc on your operations is a fear.

However, the all-too-common reality in the API world is that your worst enemies are often your worst customers. Irresponsible or unknowledgeable developers writing super chatty apps. Opportunistic partners who look to take advantage of data that gives them value, in the form of high volume traffic, and no value for you in return. Scarier yet are users whose security tokens are compromised, leaving everything from users’ personal information to financial transactions at risk (now we might be talking about criminals again!).

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