How to use Risk Cloud’s API to create or retrieve an API Access Token
The Risk Cloud API uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication, which uses a bearer token in the Authorization HTTP header. Please take note that these tokens have an expiration time of one year. After the token expires, you will need to generate a new one.
In order to start using the API, first retrieve your Client and Secret keys from the Profile page. This can be navigated to by clicking the Person icon in the top right corner and then the Profile button.

In the Profile page, go to the Access Key tab. If this tab is not there, please contact your Risk Cloud administrator as you may not have API privileges.
- In the Access Key tab, you will see both Client and Secret keys. These are both necessary to generate an access key or retrieve an existing access key.
- Use the Reset Secret Key NOT the Generate Access Key button to generate a new secret. The client should stay visible. If this is your FIRST TIME using our API, please reset your secret.
- This panel also has the ability to generate the Access Key aka the “Bearer Token” on its own. After clicking on Generate Access Key button, the Bearer Token will appear in the Access Key textbox.

Note: The next set of instructions is for generating your Bearer token programmatically. You may use the Access Key from the screen above for API calls as your Bearer token.
After having both Client and Secret keys they will need to be base64 encoded.
- Encode via Terminal:
echo -n '{CLIENT}:{SECRET}' | base64 - Encode via PowerShell:
[Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes('{CLIENT}:{SECRET}'))
Once they are encoded, take your encoded string and place it in the authorization header as a “Basic Token” ex Authorization: Basic {ENCODED_BASE64_STRING}
Once this URL is pinged with the correct Authorization Header a JSON response will appear mimicking the following structure:
Response:
{
"access_token": "KEY_HERE",
"token_type": "bearer",
"expires_in": 31532918,
"scope": "read write"
}The returned access_token can then be used in the authorization header as a “Bearer Token” to interact with Risk Cloud’s API
Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}Next Steps
Once your Bearer token is created, you’re ready to start interacting with our API. For more details, check out our API Documentation.
For instructions on interacting with our API via Postman, check out our Postman Help Article.