KTrust<\/a>, a Tel Aviv-based security startup, is taking a different approach to Kubernetes security from many of its competitors in the space. Instead of only scanning Kubernetes clusters and their configurations for known vulnerabilities, KTrust is taking a more proactive approach. It deploys an automated system that tries to hack into the system. This allows security teams to focus on real-world attack paths and not just long lists of potential security vulnerabilities. As such, KTrust is essentially a read team in a box \u2014 though research firm Gartner prefers to call it Continous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM).<\/p>\n Ktrust is coming out of stealth today and announcing a $5.4 million seed funding round led by AWZ Ventures.<\/p>\n As with so many Israeli security companies, the leadership team is coming in with considerable experience. CEO Nadav Toledo was previously a colonel in the Israeli Defense Forces\u2019 8200 intelligence unit, where he spent 25 years before starting KTrust. CTO Nadav Aharon-Nov<\/a> previously was the CTO at cyber intelligence and defense company R-MOR, while COO Sigalit Shavit was previously the global CIO of publicly traded CyberArk. CBO Snit Mazilik complements this group with extensive business experience, including as the CEO of Shanghai-based fashion wholesaler Must Garment Group and as a managing partner at real estate investment firm NOI Ventures. That\u2019s an eclectic group of founders, but as Toledo told me, \u201ceverybody brings a different perspective to the board and it\u2019s the very best team.\u201d<\/p>\n As a group, Toledo, Aharon-Nov and Mazilik started brainstorming different ideas for a security startup. The team landed on Kubernetes, which is not necessarily a surprise, given that it\u2019s still a fast-growing ecosystem that many traditional enterprises are only now starting to embrace.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> KTrust<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cKubernetes is very complex and it\u2019s very dynamic. We went to organizations and talked to the DevOps teams and CISOs [\u2026] We saw the DevOps teams were struggling \u2014 and we also saw the DevSecOps teams struggling because they want them to also be Kubernetes experts \u2014 configuring Kubernetes \u2014 and on the other hand, be security experts,\u201d Toledo told me.<\/p>\n The team noted that most Kubernetes security solutions took what he called a \u201cpassive scanner approach\u201d that focuses on doing static code analysis. But that results in lots of alerts and somebody then has to turn these into a work plan. The idea behind KTrust is to take a very different approach by using an automated red team algorithm that proactively explores attack paths to identify exposures in a Kubernetes-based system. KTrust takes a customer\u2019s Kubernetes infrastructure settings and then duplicates them in a secure sandbox where its algorithms can attack it.<\/p>\n
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