Falco vs Scout: What are the differences?

# Key Differences between Falco and Scout

Falco and Scout are both open-source projects used for runtime security monitoring in cloud-native environments. Despite their similarities, there are key differences that determine which tool is best suited for specific use cases. Below are the main differences between Falco and Scout:

1. **Data Collection**: Falco is focused on collecting data from the system calls made by applications and processes, providing deep visibility into application behavior and potential security threats. In contrast, Scout primarily focuses on collecting data from Kubernetes events and objects, giving insights into the overall health and performance of the Kubernetes cluster.

2. **Rules Engine**: Falco comes with a rich set of predefined rules for detecting security incidents based on system call events, making it a powerful tool for threat detection and prevention. Scout, on the other hand, provides a customizable rules engine that allows users to define specific conditions for monitoring Kubernetes resources, enabling more tailored alerting and monitoring strategies.

3. **Deployment Architecture**: Falco is typically deployed as a daemonset on each node in a Kubernetes cluster, allowing it to monitor system calls and process activity directly on the nodes where applications run. In contrast, Scout is deployed as a deployment within the Kubernetes cluster, collecting data from the control plane and API server to monitor cluster-level events and objects.

4. **Alerting Mechanisms**: Falco is designed to trigger alerts based on predefined rules and policies, notifying users of potential security incidents in real-time. Scout focuses on providing real-time monitoring and visualization of Kubernetes resources, allowing users to create custom dashboards and alerts based on resource metrics and events.

5. **Integration Capabilities**: Falco provides integrations with popular security information and event management (SIEM) tools, allowing users to centralize security monitoring and incident response workflows. Scout offers integrations with monitoring tools such as Prometheus and Grafana, enabling users to leverage existing monitoring infrastructure for Kubernetes resources.

6. **Community Support**: Falco is part of the CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) ecosystem and has a large, active community of contributors and users, providing ongoing support and development. Scout, while also supported by an open-source community, may have a smaller user base and potentially fewer resources available for support and troubleshooting.

In Summary, Falco offers deep visibility into application behavior and focuses on system call analysis for security monitoring, while Scout specializes in monitoring Kubernetes resources and cluster events through a customizable rules engine and integration with monitoring tools.