Open data has the potential to provide significant benefits to consumers and businesses in the coming years. It accelerates the development of innovative new software applications by enabling data to flow between apps seamlessly. To maximize the impact of open data, policies must be set up in government, business, and society to make sure open data APIs are developed and run securely, explains Nathanael Coffing, CSO and co-founder of Cloudentity.
Open data applications allow data to be freely exchanged between businesses and consumers to help provide them with useful, personalized services and better user experiences. Today, the ability to privately share data through open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) has created opportunities for startups to create innovative solutions for finance, energy, healthcare, government, and other industries. This extends technology companies’ ability to create new and innovative apps and services, redefining customer, partner, and developer interaction.
Open data has the potential to provide significant benefits to consumers and businesses and in the coming years. It accelerates the development of innovative new software applications by enabling data to flow between apps seamlessly. To maximize the impact of open data, policies must be set up in government, business, and society to make sure open data APIs are developed and run securely.
Protecting Open Data APIs
API protection is critical for managing human and machine identities and dictates how an application is able to consume sensitive data. Weak APIs make open data apps vulnerable to attack from malicious actors, which can lead to data breaches that compromise sensitive personal data. This happens when object- or function-level authorization issues cause data leakage that cybercriminals can exploit. An example of programmatic data leakage occurring is the Walgreens app errorOpens a new window that occurred in 2020. In that situation, a vulnerability in the Walgreens app’s API unintentionally allowed a data breach where customers could view the private medical messages and information of other customers. This shows that if business leaders don’t proactively take control of their organization’s identity management and integrate it with strong API security guardrails, there will be more large-scale data breaches to come that can devastate the brand’s reputation.
To keep data-sharing secure and meet privacy and compliance standards, open data APIs must use fine-grained authorization coupled with consent for every individual piece of personally identifiable information (PII). This means the user’s account, individual transactions, last name, and any other personal identifiers must be consented to before the information is shared with another organization. In addition, enterprises that use open APIs must be able to keep track of the intent of data usage, the duration of usage, who the data is being shared with and for how long. This level of strict, automated authorization, coupled with consent management, becomes a competitive differentiator for open data apps and creates new opportunities for allowing customers to protect and share their data.
While the world is still exploring how open data can be used, three of today’s most beneficial use cases for open data are open banking, open healthcare, and open government. With proper regulatory standards, these open data capabilities can change the way consumers and businesses share data and create more user-friendly applications that make day-to-day transactions easier.
Learn More: 3 Intelligent Automation Opportunities To Transform Banking
Open Banking: Delivering Accessible Banking Services
Open banking, which relies on open data, is a system where users’ personal and business data can be shared between applications and banks at their request, giving easy access to financial products that save time and money. Before open data, a select group of major banks controlled all the financial data of their customers, making it difficult for new, innovative fintech providers to break into the market.
Open banking is beneficial to consumers because it puts the power of financial data back into users’ hands, transforming the financial services industry as we know it. Popular apps like Venmo, Mint and SoFi show the value open banking can bring to consumers when they can more easily manage and transfer funds.
Open Healthcare: Health Records and Patient Data Shared Quicker and More Securely
Open healthcare makes valuable health data more accessible to entrepreneurs, researchers, and policymakers in the hopes of providing better health outcomes for patients. 77% of CEOs reported that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated their organizations’ digital transformation plans and that 40% are spending more on IT infrastructure. This was especially the case for the healthcare industry during the pandemic when virtual care became the new standard for non-urgent medical treatment. In addition, COVID-19 made it even more essential for hospitals and other medical facilities to have the technology platforms to security exchange medical data and patient records in real time.
This private medical data and its passwords must be kept completely secure, especially given the significant spike in ransomware attacks that hospitals faced in last year. According to a recent report, more than 500 healthcare organizations reported a breach of 500+ patient records in 2020, with 23.5 million individuals impacted. COVID-19 exposed the need for hospitals to shore up security fundamentals and infrastructure and use tools rationalization to reduce coverage gaps.
While the urgent need for secure medical data-sharing has led to more open healthcare APIs being developed, there are strict compliance guidelines and regulationsOpens a new window that must be followed for patient medical data that developers should be aware of, which are being enforced starting July 1, 2021. With open healthcare on the rise, developers have an opportunity for innovation that can power the next generation of digital patient and clinician experiences that these unprecedented times demand.
Learn More: Zero Trust Approach Can Defend Against IoMT Device Attacks for Healthcare Organizations
Open Government: Streamlining Operations in the Public Sector
Open data can be used to help the public sector in education, transportation, utilities and critical infrastructure. It enables the public sector to streamline its processes and services. By harnessing open data, it is easier for government organizations to pinpoint areas of improvement and enhance productivity in a measurable way.
Public sector systems lag in their response time, but with open data, government agencies can track and predict changes in real-time and accordingly respond to the changes happening. With this critical data, it is possible for the government and civic leaders to devise tailored solutions based on different demographics and the needs of the population. In addition, open government can create greater transparency and integrity for the public sector, and even lead to increased civic activism. Existing public open data sources include the U.S. Census BureauOpens a new window , European Union Open Data PortalOpens a new window , Data.govOpens a new window and Google Public Data ExplorerOpens a new window .
Learn More: Mainframe Mayhem: Here’s Why Government Agencies Need to Pursue Modernization
Open Data in the API Economy
API-centric services are relied on every day for seamlessly sharing open data and controlling which users can view and edit certain files. As a result, API security is a foundational element in today’s app-driven world and APIs need stronger, more granular methods of transactional authorization. The risk is very real as we have seen from the dozens of API breaches. Privacy is also at the core of open-data platforms, and authorization and consent ensure that privacy and security are supported. Given consumer privacy regulations such as GDPROpens a new window and CCPAOpens a new window , APIs must include consent controls that are much more rigorous to prevent sharing consumer data without proper consent.Â
Today’s connected world demands more data, so open data is highly valuable for a variety of purposes and touches our many consumers’ everyday lives without them realizing it. With the right security guardrails in place on the back end to securely authenticate users, open data apps show great promise and will serve as a catalyst for innovation over the next few years.
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