How RAW Provides a Secure Platform

Security is paramount, especially when dealing with data. Here’s a deeper dive into why RAW – the modern platform for building, hosting, and sharing data through APIs – is a secure choice for your data manipulation needs.

1. Foundation on AWS and FTR Program Compliance

RAW runs as a Software as a Service (SaaS) on Amazon Web Services (AWS), a leader in cloud computing. Being a SaaS means we do all the heavy lifting for you, including security enforcements, system upgrades, etc. But we do it on AWS, which provides a secure, scalable infrastructure that adheres to the highest standards of security. Additionally, RAW‘s compliance with the AWS Foundational Technical Review (FTR) program underscores our commitment to security best practices and operational excellence.

2. Snapi: A Secure and High-Level Programming Language

At the heart of RAW is Snapi, a programming language specifically designed for data manipulation. Snapi is a high-level functional declarative style language. This design choice plays a significant role in ensuring security and robustness in data manipulation and API development. Let’s delve into why the characteristics of Snapi contribute to enhanced security.

High-Level Functional Declarative Style

1. Clarity and Reduced Complexity: Snapi’s high-level nature means that it abstracts many of the complexities typically associated with lower-level programming languages. This abstraction reduces the likelihood of programming errors, which are often a source of security vulnerabilities. Clear, concise code is easier to audit for security issues, thus enhancing overall system security.
2. Immutability in Functional Programming: In functional programming, data structures are typically immutable. Once created, they cannot be altered. This immutability is a boon for security as it prevents unintended side-effects that could lead to data corruption or security breaches. By enforcing a more predictable and stable state throughout the application, Snapi minimizes risks associated with mutable data.
3. Declarative Approach: The declarative style of Snapi means that programmers express the logic of computation without describing its control flow. This approach leads to fewer lines of code, reducing the attack surface for potential security vulnerabilities. Declarative code is also easier to reason about from a security perspective, making it simpler to identify and rectify potential security flaws.
4. Statelessness: Functional programming often emphasizes statelessness, where functions don’t rely on or alter shared state. This statelessness inherent in Snapi can enhance security by minimizing the chances of shared state manipulations, which are common in security attacks like race conditions.

Enhanced Security through Design

The design principles of Snapi inherently promote security:

• Built-in Connectors: Snapi‘s wide array of built-in connectors for various data formats and databases eliminates the need for external dependencies. This integration minimizes the security risks associated with maintenance of third-party tools or libraries.
• Minimized Side Effects: By favoring pure functions, which have no side effects and give the same output for the same inputs, Snapi reduces the likelihood of unintended interactions with other parts of the system, which could lead to security vulnerabilities.
• Error Handling: Snapi’s approach to error handling, designed specifically for data manipulation tasks, ensures that program execution continues smoothly even in the face of exceptions. This means that errors can be handled more gracefully, reducing the potential for exploitable crashes or failures.
• Simplified Data Manipulation: As Snapi is tailored for complex data types typical found in JSON or XML files, it simplifies the manipulation of such data. Simplified data handling reduces the chances of errors that could lead to security vulnerabilities, particularly in the processing and transformation of complex data structures.

3. GraalVM/Truffle Framework: Ensuring Isolation and Security

The implementation of Snapi uses the GraalVM/Truffle framework. This framework, known for its high-performance and language-agnostic capabilities, provides an added layer of security through efficient resource isolation. In fact, even ORACLE’s Multilingual Engine, part of the ORACLE database system, uses the same infrastructure.

4. Secure API Management

The ability to build APIs with scopes and the integration of API Keys in RAW further fortify its security framework. This approach ensures that only authorized users can access specific data, significantly reducing the risk of data leakage or unauthorized manipulation.

A Secure Data Manipulation Platform

RAW, with its innovative Snapi language, AWS-based infrastructure, and advanced security features, presents a highly secure platform for data manipulation and API management. Whether you’re dealing with complex data structures or need a resilient and understandable language for data tasks, RAW offers a secure and reliable solution aligned with the highest data security and operational reliability standards.

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