
February 23, 2025
Rakuten SixthSense API Security Observability: How It Works
APIs are the backbone of digital transformation, enabling seamless data exchange between services, applications, and third-party integrations. However, as API usage grows, so do the risks, including unauthorized access, data breaches, and API abuse.
🚨 By 2025, API security threats will account for over 90% of cyberattacks on web applications. To combat this, organizations must implement real-time API security observability—ensuring full visibility, monitoring, and automated protection against emerging threats.
Rakuten SixthSense provides AI-powered API security observability, offering deep insights, anomaly detection, and proactive threat mitigation. This guide explores how Rakuten SixthSense works and why it’s essential for modern API security.
1. What is API Security Observability?
🔍 Definition: API Security Observability provides real-time monitoring, analytics, and automated response mechanisms to detect, analyze, and mitigate API threats.
📈 Key Benefits:
- Enhanced API Visibility – Monitors API traffic, endpoints, and user behaviors.
- Threat Intelligence & Anomaly Detection – Identifies malicious API patterns in real-time.
- Proactive API Risk Mitigation – Blocks threats before they cause damage.
- Regulatory Compliance & Reporting – Ensures APIs adhere to security standards (GDPR, CCPA, PCI DSS).
- Data Leak Prevention – Monitors sensitive data exposure and prevents unauthorized access.
✅ Solution: Rakuten SixthSense delivers real-time API security observability, helping organizations detect, investigate, and mitigate threats efficiently.
2. How Rakuten SixthSense API Security Observability Works
🚀 Rakuten SixthSense leverages AI-driven observability to detect and prevent API threats in real-time. Here’s how it works:
A. API Discovery & Continuous Monitoring
- 🔹 Automatically discovers APIs across cloud environments, microservices, and third-party integrations.
- 🔹 Identifies shadow APIs and zombie APIs that pose security risks.
- 🔹 Monitors API dependencies and inter-service communications to detect vulnerabilities.
- 🔹 Classifies APIs based on risk exposure and security posture.
- 🔹 Real-time inventory management ensures visibility over all active APIs.
✅ Outcome: Full API inventory and security posture assessment to reduce attack surfaces.
B. AI-Powered Anomaly Detection & Threat Intelligence
- 🔹 Behavioral analysis to detect unusual API traffic patterns.
- 🔹 Machine learning models to identify API credential stuffing, bot attacks, and unauthorized API access.
- 🔹 Context-aware API security monitoring for business logic attacks.
- 🔹 Continuous learning from past incidents improves threat detection accuracy.
- 🔹 Detects advanced persistent threats (APTs) by analyzing long-term trends.
✅ Outcome: Early threat detection and automated risk scoring for proactive security measures.
C. Automated API Threat Mitigation & Response
- 🔹 Real-time API security alerts to notify security teams of threats.
- 🔹 Automated threat mitigation—blocking malicious API requests before they cause damage.
- 🔹 Rate limiting and API throttling to prevent API abuse and DDoS attacks.
- 🔹 Integration with SIEM platforms for centralized threat analysis.
- 🔹 Policy-driven enforcement ensures security compliance at all levels.
✅ Outcome: Reduced API downtime, minimized risk exposure, and better API performance.
D. API Compliance & Security Posture Management
- 🔹 Monitors API logs and access controls to ensure security compliance.
- 🔹 Enforces security policies based on API risk assessment.
- 🔹 Generates compliance-ready reports for audits and regulatory requirements.
- 🔹 Ensures API access logging for forensic analysis in case of incidents.
- 🔹 Helps meet industry regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and PCI DSS.
✅ Outcome: Strengthened API security governance and reduced compliance risks.
3. Key Features of Rakuten SixthSense API Security Observability
- ✔ Real-Time API Monitoring: Detects anomalies and threats as they happen.
- ✔ AI-Driven Risk Detection: Identifies security incidents with machine learning analytics.
- ✔ Automated API Protection: Blocks unauthorized access and API abuse dynamically.
- ✔ Zero Trust API Security: Enforces strict authentication and authorization measures.
- ✔ Seamless Integration with Security Tools: Works with WAFs, SIEMs, and DevSecOps workflows.
- ✔ Shadow & Zombie API Detection: Identifies unmanaged API endpoints before attackers do.
- ✔ Compliance & Audit-Ready Reporting: Ensures adherence to regulatory security standards.
- ✔ API Performance & Usage Analytics: Provides insights into API traffic trends.
- ✔ Customizable Security Policies: Allows organizations to tailor API security rules.
🚀 Rakuten SixthSense provides an all-in-one API security observability solution, ensuring APIs remain protected from evolving threats.
4. Why Choose Rakuten SixthSense for API Security Observability?
- 🔹 API security observability is critical for modern digital ecosystems.
- 🔹 Rakuten SixthSense provides AI-driven security intelligence to detect, analyze, and prevent API threats.
- 🔹 By 2025, businesses implementing API security observability will reduce API risks by over 80%.
- 🔹 Seamless integration with existing security infrastructure for comprehensive threat management.
- 🔹 Continuous improvement through AI-driven analytics ensures proactive API defense.
- 🔹 Supports enterprise-scale API environments with minimal performance overhead.
🚀 Want to see Rakuten SixthSense in action? Get a free demo today!