Falco for Kubernetes runtime security (eBPF, Rules, Tuning & Alerts)

Runtime attacks don’t wait for your next scan. Falco detects suspicious behavior in real time across Kubernetes, containers, and Linux hosts—using syscall signals (eBPF/kernel module) plus a rule engine and plugins.

In ~10 minutes, Sysdig Managing Editor Kat Zivkovic breaks down how Falco works end-to-end, where it fits in a modern cloud-native security stack, and how to operationalize it without drowning in noise.

In this video:

What Falco is (and what it’s not): runtime behavioral detection vs. static scanning
How Falco works: event capture → enrichment → rules → alerts
Drivers: modern eBPF probe vs kernel module (tradeoffs + compatibility)
What Falco can catch: shells in containers, writes to /etc, privilege escalation patterns, unexpected outbound connections
Plugins & ecosystem: Kubernetes audit logs, cloud events, custom sources
Practical rollout: start small, tune rules, route alerts to your workflow (Slack/SIEM/PagerDuty), measure overhead

Getting started checklist (practical):

Install Falco (Kubernetes via Helm or on hosts)
Start with default rules
Forward outputs to where engineers live (Slack/SIEM/alerts)
Tune noisy rules + baseline “normal” behavior
Expand with plugins + map to incident workflows (MITRE/NIST)

Links:

Falco: https://falco.org/
GitHub: https://github.com/falcosecurity/falco
CNCF project page: https://www.cncf.io/projects/falco/
Sysdig Open Source community: https://community.sysdig.com

Chapters:

00:00 What is Falco?
01:16 How does Falco work?
03:15 Falco use cases
04:30 What makes Falco different
05:30 Planning your Falco adoption
06:07 Getting started with Falco
07:25 Falco best practices & troubleshooting

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