Book Image

API Testing and Development with Postman

By : Dave Westerveld
1 (1)
Book Image

API Testing and Development with Postman

1 (1)
By: Dave Westerveld

Overview of this book

Postman enables the exploration and testing of web APIs, helping testers and developers figure out how an API works. With Postman, you can create effective test automation for any APIs. If you want to put your knowledge of APIs to work quickly, this practical guide to using Postman will help you get started. The book provides a hands-on approach to learning the implementation and associated methodologies that will have you up and running with Postman in no time. Complete with step-by-step explanations of essential concepts, practical examples, and self-assessment questions, this book begins by taking you through the principles of effective API testing. A combination of theory coupled with real-world examples will help you learn how to use Postman to create well-designed, documented, and tested APIs. You'll then be able to try some hands-on projects that will teach you how to add test automation to an already existing API with Postman, and guide you in using Postman to create a well-designed API from scratch. By the end of this book, you'll be able to use Postman to set up and run API tests for any API that you are working with.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: API Testing Theory and Terminology
6
Section 2: Using Postman When Working with an Existing API
13
Section 3: Using Postman to Develop an API

Chapter 5: Understanding Authorization Options

In 2017, Equifax, a large credit reporting agency, announced that they had been hacked. Data from 147 million of their users had been stolen. Years of lawsuits and fines followed and by the time everything had been paid out, the hack cost Equifax more than 1.7 billion dollars.

Although this is one of the most expensive hacks in history, it is far from the only one. Many thousands of companies have been hacked and lost data. The cost of these hacks might range from dollar amounts that end in billions, to those that are "only" in the millions, but the fact remains that security is an extremely important part of any application.

One of the most common ways that attackers get into systems is through APIs. In the Equifax case, the attackers got in initially due to an unpatched server, but then, they were able to extract data for several months by using the APIs that Equifax provides. APIs are meant to be interacted with programmatically...