How TechCorp Reduced API Attacks by 95%
Company Profile
Industry: Financial Services
Team Size: 120 engineers
API Requests: 50M+ per day
Previous Solution: Kong Enterprise
Previous Cost: $2,400/month
Migration Time: 2 weeks
The Problem
TechCorp, a fast-growing fintech startup, was experiencing a surge in API-based attacks. Their Kong Enterprise setup was complex to maintain and lacked real-time threat detection. Key challenges included:
📊 200+ SQL Injection Attempts Daily
Attackers were probing their payment API endpoints with various SQL injection payloads. Kong's WAF plugin required manual signature updates and generated false positives.
⚡ DDoS Attacks Causing Downtime
Layer 7 DDoS attacks were overwhelming their rate limiting, causing 3-4 hours of degraded performance per month. Their SLA was at risk.
💰 High Operational Costs
Kong Enterprise licensing was $2,400/month, plus they needed 2 engineers spending 10+ hours/week on configuration and maintenance.
🔍 No Real-Time Visibility
Security team had to dig through logs to understand attacks. No real-time dashboard or alerting.
The Solution: Migration to G8KEPR
After evaluating several alternatives, TechCorp chose G8KEPR for its pattern-based threat detection, ease of deployment, and 96% cost savings. The migration process took just 2 weeks:
Migration Timeline
Setup and Testing
Deployed G8KEPR in parallel with Kong. Configured rate limits, imported API routes, enabled pattern-based threat detection with custom rules for their payment endpoints.
Cutover and Monitoring
Gradually shifted traffic from Kong to G8KEPR using weighted DNS. Monitored dashboards for anomalies. Decommissioned Kong by day 12.
The Results
Pattern-based detection blocked SQL injection, XSS, and path traversal attacks automatically. Went from 200+ daily attempts to less than 10.
Circuit breaker pattern and improved rate limiting eliminated DDoS-related downtime. Zero incidents in 3 months post-migration.
From $2,400/month (Kong) to $99/month (G8KEPR). Saved $27,612 in first year. Reduced engineering time by 80%.
G8KEPR added only 2.8ms average latency vs Kong's 5.2ms. Faster threat detection with lower overhead.
Testimonial
"G8KEPR transformed our API security posture overnight. The pattern-based threat detection caught attacks that slipped through Kong's WAF. The real-time dashboard gives our security team instant visibility. And we are saving over $2,000/month. It was a no-brainer migration."
Key Takeaways
- Pattern-based detection is more effective than signature-based WAFs
- Real-time visibility reduces mean time to detection (MTTD) dramatically
- Circuit breakers prevent cascade failures during attacks
- Enterprise security does not have to cost enterprise prices
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