What is the best Web API Authentication practice

Question

Which one is the best authentication approach for an Web API, considering that the data security is essential and the ASP.NET application runs on Azure?

Answer 1

Talking about the best practice, consider the below scenario:

When dealing with authentication and securing your Web API I recommend you follow the guidelines set by Dominick Baier. There might be no better expert on ASP.NET identity management in the world.

You can find a great Web API Identity package at Nuget, Thinktecture.IdentityModel - http://nuget.org/packages/Thinktecture.IdentityModel As with most of the good open source libraries, since all the functionality is available for your for free, there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

This is a top-to-bottom identity & access control library for .NET 4.0/WIF and .NET 4.5 (including support for MVC and Web API).

If you want to learn more about securing your Web API, you should also watch this video http://vimeo.com/43603474 - Dominick's talk from NDC Oslo 2012.