Expel Advances Leadership in Cloud Security with MDR for Kubernetes

Expel simplifies security for Kubernetes applications with first-to-market MDR offering.

Expel, the security operations provider that aims to make security easy to understand, use and improve, today announced the general availability of Expel managed detection and response (MDR) for Kubernetes—the first-to-market offering of its kind. This new product enables customers to secure their business across their Kubernetes environment and adopt new technologies at scale without being hindered by security concerns.

“Organizations are adopting Kubernetes as a way to help their developers move fast and scale. This is similar to the historical drive to cloud infrastructure and, just like that drive, it comes with a new set of opportunities, and a new set of security challenges," explains Matt Peters, Chief Product Officer, Expel. “We developed Expel MDR for Kubernetes to enable organizations to take advantage of the Kubernetes ecosystem while still protecting what matters to them in today’s constantly shifting threat landscape.”

Kubernetes has quickly become the de-facto standard for automating scaling, deployment and management of containerized applications. According to a 2022 report from KBV Research, the container application market is expected to grow to $12B by 2028, with Kubernetes driving the majority of the spend. As such, the need for fast, agile, and light-weight application development has become a core competitive requirement, but without incorporating security from the start, risks increase. Expel MDR for Kubernetes enables teams to quickly detect and respond to security risks in their Kubernetes environments without slowing down DevOps—enabling organizations to focus more on the priorities that matter most to the business.

The offering provides insights across three core layers of Kubernetes applications:

1. Configuration: To help organizations stay ahead of pervasive misconfigurations, Expel MDR for Kubernetes identifies cluster misconfigurations and references the Center for Information Security (CIS) Kubernetes benchmark for best practices to recommend configuration improvements—allowing security teams to proactively become more resilient against threats.
2. Control plane: Regardless of where a business is on its journey, Expel MDR for Kubernetes turns complexity into clarity. This offering integrates with Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) infrastructure, analyzing Kubernetes audit logs, applying custom detection logic to alert on malicious or interesting activity, and providing clear, step-by-step remediation recommendations.
3. Run-time security: Expel uses a Bring-Your-Own-Tech (“BYO-Tech”) approach, so customers can maximize return on investment (ROI) with the solutions of their choice. Expel MDR for Kubernetes integrates with a portfolio of run-time container security vendors to get customers more value from the tech they already use.

Expel MDR for Kubernetes also aligns to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, enabling teams to quickly remediate and create resilience for the future. Expel-written detections continuously learn and adapt based on activity in the environment, putting customers ahead of threats and equipping them with the answers and best-practices to track Kubernetes security posture over time.

Expel MDR for Kubernetes is available now. To learn more about Expel MDR for Kubernetes, set up a conversation with our team.

Additional resources:

• Tell Dr. Kubernetes where it hurts
• Understanding the 3 Classes of Kubernetes Risk
• Understanding role-based access control in Kubernetes
• Three Kubernetes events worth investigating
• Kubernetes: the whale in the room

What others are saying:

“There are two things that differentiated Expel for us: the BYO-tech approach that allowed for quick, frictionless integration and the Expel-written detections that gave us value from day one. As a cloud-native company, we operate a lot in GKE [Google Kubernetes Engine]. Expel MDR for Kubernetes gives us unparalleled visibility into our environment—correlating ‘big picture’ activities with added context from other integrated technologies and providing increased security observability into our environment.”

- Rahil Parikh, Security Manager, Engineering & Architecture, Policygenius

“As organizations rapidly adopt Kubernetes to scale their DevOps, a lack of in-house skills will undoubtedly challenge teams. Security operations teams need coverage of every app, endpoint, network, and more, and resource-constrained teams can’t become experts on every new vector overnight. Adding a customizable, integrated approach to securing Kubernetes that allows security operations teams to get up and running quickly is becoming a must-have capability for modern organizations.”

- Craig Robinson, Research Vice President, Security Services, IDC

“The introduction of Expel MDR for Kubernetes demonstrates Expel has its finger on the pulse of the expanding threat landscape, as they arm customers and partners alike with solutions to support the evolving environment. Because Expel already uses Kubernetes, the team knows how it works and how to secure it. That boots-on-the-ground knowledge gives partners another way to add value, as we seek to provide the best solutions in an increasingly crowded market.”

- Ryan Benson, Senior Director, Security Operations and Managed Services, Stratascale

About Expel

Expel helps companies of all shapes and sizes minimize business risk. Our technology and people work together to make sense of security signals—with your business in mind—to detect, understand, and fix issues fast. Powered by our security operations platform, Expel offers managed detection and response (MDR), remediation, phishing, and threat hunting. For more information, visit our website, check out our blog, or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

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