In Salt Security's runtime protection, how do we optimize the trade-off between immediate API traffic blocking and allowing for manual review to prevent business disruption?

Introduction

The trade-off between immediate API traffic blocking and manual review in Salt Security's runtime protection is a critical balance between security and business continuity. We need to optimize our approach to prevent malicious attacks while minimizing disruption to legitimate API traffic. I'll analyze this trade-off by examining the product context, identifying key metrics, designing experiments, and providing a data-driven recommendation.

Step 1

Clarifying Questions (3 minutes)

• Context: I'm assuming this is for our enterprise customers using our API security platform. Could you confirm if this applies to all customer segments or a specific subset?

Why it matters: Helps tailor the solution to the most impacted users Expected answer: Applies to all enterprise customers Impact on approach: Would need to consider varying security needs across industries

• Business Context: Based on our market position, I'm thinking this trade-off directly impacts our value proposition of "security without friction." How critical is this to our competitive advantage?

Why it matters: Aligns solution with core business strategy Expected answer: Highly critical, key differentiator from competitors Impact on approach: Would prioritize maintaining balance over leaning too heavily on either extreme

• User Impact: Considering the potential for false positives, I'm curious about the current rate of legitimate traffic mistakenly blocked. Do we have data on this?

Why it matters: Quantifies the business disruption we're trying to mitigate Expected answer: Low but non-zero rate, e.g., 0.1-1% of legitimate traffic Impact on approach: Would influence the aggressiveness of our blocking algorithms

• Technical: I'm thinking about the scalability of manual review. What's our current capacity for human review of flagged traffic?

Why it matters: Determines feasibility of increasing manual review Expected answer: Limited capacity, perhaps handling 5-10% of flagged traffic Impact on approach: Might need to consider AI-assisted review or tiered approach

• Timeline: Given the evolving nature of API threats, how urgent is this optimization? Are we responding to a specific incident or proactively improving?

Why it matters: Influences the pace and scope of our solution Expected answer: Proactive improvement, but with increasing customer requests Impact on approach: Would balance thorough analysis with timely implementation