Kubernetes Blind Spots: Why Agentless Container Security Is a Must-Have

Container adoption is exploding. So are the risks.  

As security teams race to keep up with sprawling Kubernetes environments, one thing has become clear: you can’t secure what you can’t see.

That was the core takeaway from the recent Illumio webinar, Uncover Blind Spots and Expose Threats with Agentless Containers, hosted by Illumio experts Nathan Tran, technical product line manager, and Christer Swartz, director of solutions marketing.  

They discussed how modern cloud-native apps introduce dangerous visibility gaps and why traditional tools aren’t built to address them. They also highlighted how the Illumio agentless container security solution delivers the visibility, scalability, and control security teams need to reduce risk in Kubernetes environments.

Kubernetes and its risks are booming

According to Gartner, more than 90% of global organizations will be running containerized applications in production by the end of 2025. Kubernetes has become the go-to platform for orchestrating these environments, from cloud-native microservices to hybrid infrastructure.

But this growth hasn’t come without challenges. Security teams face an increasingly complex landscape of:

• Expanding attack surfaces. More services, APIs, and ports mean more entry points for attackers. ‍
• Short-lived workloads. Containers spin up and down constantly, making monitoring and enforcement difficult.
• ‍Misconfigurations. Kubernetes is powerful but complex and often deployed with insecure defaults. ‍
• Visibility gaps. Most tools can’t provide a clear picture of what’s happening inside Kubernetes clusters. ‍
• Supply chain risk. Container images can introduce unknown vulnerabilities and dependencies. ‍
• Inadequate identity controls. Native role-based access control (RBAC) doesn’t account for intent, privilege duration, or lateral movement detection.

This creates the perfect storm for cyber threats to flourish. And without deep, continuous visibility, organizations are flying blind.

Illumio agentless container security: what it is and why it’s different

Illumio agentless container security is built to address these exact challenges.  

It provides real-time visibility and control over container workloads without the friction of installing agents on every node.

This solution is part of the Illumio platform, extending our proven cloud-native segmentation capabilities into containerized environments.  

Here’s how it works and what makes it different.

Built for the way Kubernetes actually works

Instead of relying on per-node agents, Illumio deploys a lightweight agent at the cluster level. This agent integrates directly with Kubernetes APIs and CNI plugins like Cilium. It gathers traffic, metadata, and connectivity insights across namespaces, services, and cloud accounts.

The result is a complete 360-degree view of what’s running, what’s talking, and what shouldn’t be — without disrupting performance or requiring heavyweight deployments.

Unified cloud and Kubernetes visibility

Illumio provides a single map of cloud and Kubernetes traffic. You can see how pods, services, and clusters communicate with VPCs, data warehouses, and other assets across your environment.  

This unified visibility helps eliminate blind spots that attackers exploit for lateral movement and privilege escalation.

Works across any infrastructure

With Illumio, Kubernetes doesn’t have to live in a silo.  

Our agentless approach works seamlessly across EKS, GKE, OpenShift, AKS, and on-premises environments. Whether you’re running in the cloud, on bare metal, or somewhere in between, Illumio delivers consistent security outcomes.

Designed to scale

We’ve built our platform to handle environments with millions of workloads. That means you can onboard thousands of clusters with Terraform or a few clicks. You get actionable insights fast, without creating operational bottlenecks.

3 use cases that prove the power of Illumio agentless container security  

Illumio agentless container security helps teams solve their most urgent Kubernetes challenges. Let’s explore the three most common use cases.

1. Eliminate cloud-to-Kubernetes blind spots

Many security teams manage cloud and Kubernetes environments as separate entities, using different teams, tools, and visibility. But attackers don’t see those boundaries.

With Illumio, organizations can see how cloud resources and Kubernetes workloads interact, down to the namespace and pod level. For example, you can visualize an EKS cluster communicating with a data warehouse in a separate VPC and validate whether that connection is expected or risky.

This kind of visibility is critical for removing blind spots, understanding potential attack paths, and ensuring that Kubernetes resources aren’t inadvertently exposing sensitive cloud assets.

2. Validate application behavior before and after deployment

DevOps teams want to deploy fast, but security needs assurance that applications behave as expected.  

Illumio bridges that gap by allowing users to search by Kubernetes label, visualize service-to-service communication, and audit connections before code ever hits production.

Security teams can export traffic data, generate reports, and approve deployments based on observed behavior, not just assumptions.

Once in production, Illumio continues to monitor workload communication to ensure that applications still behave as intended. If something changes — like unexpected communication between services — teams get alerted immediately.

This helps catch risky changes, misconfigurations, or emerging threats without slowing down release cycles.

3. Detect and contain lateral movement in real time

Containers are ephemeral. Attackers know this, and they use short-lived workloads to evade detection and move laterally across environments.  

Once a pod restarts, traditional logging tools often lose the trail.

Illumio captures lateral movement attempts as they happen, visualizing unauthorized traffic and pinpointing the exact workloads involved. For instance, if a compromised public-facing pod attempts to connect to a Kubernetes control plane or internal service, Illumio flags it instantly and shows you whether it was allowed or blocked.

This real-time insight is critical. It gives teams the power to investigate, isolate, and contain threats before they escalate, even in highly dynamic, short-lived environments.

Why Illumio agentless container security is essential now

Security teams can no longer afford to treat Kubernetes as a black box. And they can’t rely on legacy tools to monitor an environment designed to be fast, distributed, and constantly changing.

Illumio agentless container security provides exactly what security teams need to keep up:

• Deep visibility into how containers behave and communicate ‍
• Unified observability across cloud and Kubernetes environments ‍
• Frictionless deployment with no agents or performance impact ‍
• Real-time lateral movement detection and threat containment ‍
• Scalable architecture built for modern, multi-cluster environments

Illumio helps you enable consistent Zero Trust security in Kubernetes environments, stopping lateral movement and securing the cloud-native future.

If your organization is embracing containers, now is the time to close the visibility gap. Security teams can’t protect what they can’t see, and attackers are counting on that.  

With Illumio, you can take a proactive, consistent approach to container security that scales with you.

Ready to learn more? Watch the full webinar on demand or Contáctanos Hoy.