Cloud hasn’t killed the agent: A real-time reality check

This report argues that while agentless scanning is valuable for rapid onboarding, asset discovery, CSPM, and compliance, effective cloud defense—especially against ephemeral container activity and AI-driven threats—requires agent-based runtime visibility. It highlights gaps in agentless approaches for detecting live TTPs such as kernel exploits, process injection, fileless malware, and container drift, and asserts that GenAI-enabled security needs continuous, high-fidelity telemetry only agents can provide. Sysdig advocates a combined strategy: use agentless for posture and inventory, and layer agents for runtime detection, incident response, and threat hunting, leveraging technologies like Falco and Sysdig Sage for real-time, context-aware security.