Globe Telecom Taps Traceable to Boost API Security

Traceable AI, the industry’s leading API security company, announced that it has been selected from amongst multiple API Security vendors by Globe, to strengthen its API security capabilities. Only recently, selected providers in the global telecommunications industry have reported large scale data breaches as a direct result of exposed APIs. This partnership showcases the value of cybersecurity in an important but vulnerable field.

Globe, the leading provider of telecommunications services in the Philippines, relies on APIs in many aspects of its businesses to improve the lives of citizens in the Philippines. Aside from providing internet connectivity for its over 87 million customers, the Globe Group also delivers health and financial services via mobile applications. With Traceable’s comprehensive API Security Platform, Globe is taking a proactive step to strengthen its security infrastructure, gaining valuable insight through API discovery and security posture, protection against sensitive data exfiltration, and threat management.

“APIs are the backbone of the Globe Group’s business and growth strategy. For our telco and non-telco businesses such as our fintech arm GCash, our customers are getting habituated to using mobile applications, making it easier to transact with us. However, the use of APIs comes with a substantial number of related and inherent risks that could result in damaging data breaches. To tackle these risks, we are implementing a Zero Trust approach for API access. This strategy ensures that we eliminate implied or persistent trust for APIs, which adds an additional layer of security to our system. This is a part of our proactive approach to protect our customers better,” said Anton Reynaldo Bonifacio, Globe Group Chief Information Security Officer.

Globe’s proactive approach to cybersecurity reflects a larger trend in the Philippines on improving cybersecurity measures. Other industries including banking and financial services have already implemented stricter risk management protocols as it pertains to API security. In particular, The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released a new memo (Memorandum No. M-2022-016) for API security controls including the adoption of good practices for API management.

“We are thrilled to work with Globe to help them protect their APIs and customer data. It's exciting to partner with a company that recognizes the need to secure their APIs, especially given the extent to which the telecommunications industry is embedded in our lives,” stated Jyoti Bansal, CEO at Traceable. “APIs are now the universal attack vector. They are dangerous because they expand the attack surface across all vectors, and therefore, present the largest attack surface we have ever encountered in the industry. In the past, hackers had to find ways of bypassing existing solutions, such as WAFs, DLP, API Gateways, and other solutions, in order to find data and disrupt systems. Now, they can simply exploit an API, and obtain access to sensitive data, and not even have to exploit the other solutions in the security stack. This is why more organizations need to take API security seriously, and make it an integral part of their broader cybersecurity strategy.

“We applaud Globe for taking a proactive and offensive approach to API security and making cybersecurity a top priority.”