diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index f44b4936..7df44101 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -7,8 +7,10 @@ install:
   - sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) dkms gcc-multilib g++-multilib
   - pip install pyyaml requests
 script:
+- bash test/start_agent.sh
 - bash test/test_monitor_apis.sh
 - bash test/test_secure_apis.sh
+- bash test/stop_agent.sh
 notifications:
   slack:
     secure: 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
diff --git a/test/start_agent.sh b/test/start_agent.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..09cf19d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/start_agent.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -euxo pipefail
+
+# Start an agent using the testing account API key to send some data
+docker run -d -it --rm --name sysdig-agent --privileged --net host --pid host -e COLLECTOR=collector-staging.sysdigcloud.com -e ACCESS_KEY=$PYTHON_SDC_TEST_ACCESS_KEY -v /var/run/docker.sock:/host/var/run/docker.sock  -v /dev:/host/dev -v /proc:/host/proc:ro -v /boot:/host/boot:ro -v /lib/modules:/host/lib/modules:ro -v /usr:/host/usr:ro --shm-size=350m sysdig/agent
+
+# make sure the agent starts sending data and the backend makes it available via API
+sleep 60
diff --git a/test/stop_agent.sh b/test/stop_agent.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..359435fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/stop_agent.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -euxo pipefail
+
+docker logs sysdig-agent
+docker stop sysdig-agent
diff --git a/test/test_monitor_apis.sh b/test/test_monitor_apis.sh
index a9b5587e..29257c9c 100644
--- a/test/test_monitor_apis.sh
+++ b/test/test_monitor_apis.sh
@@ -7,10 +7,6 @@ SCRIPTDIR=$(dirname $SCRIPT)
 
 export SDC_URL=https://app-staging.sysdigcloud.com
 
-docker run -d -it --rm --name sysdig-agent --privileged --net host --pid host -e COLLECTOR=collector-staging.sysdigcloud.com -e ACCESS_KEY=$PYTHON_SDC_TEST_ACCESS_KEY -v /var/run/docker.sock:/host/var/run/docker.sock  -v /dev:/host/dev -v /proc:/host/proc:ro -v /boot:/host/boot:ro -v /lib/modules:/host/lib/modules:ro -v /usr:/host/usr:ro sysdig/agent
-
-sleep 20
-
 AGENT_HOSTNAME=$(hostname -s)
 SESSION_UUID=$(head -c 32 /dev/urandom | tr -dc 'a-zA-Z0-9')
 ALERT_NAME=python-test-alert-$SESSION_UUID
@@ -49,6 +45,3 @@ date; $SCRIPTDIR/../examples/create_sysdig_capture.py $PYTHON_SDC_TEST_MONITOR_A
 date; $SCRIPTDIR/../examples/notification_channels.py -c $CHANNEL_NAME $PYTHON_SDC_TEST_MONITOR_API_TOKEN
 date; $SCRIPTDIR/../examples/user_team_mgmt.py $PYTHON_SDC_TEST_MONITOR_API_TOKEN $TEAM_NAME example-user@example-domain.com
 date; $SCRIPTDIR/../examples/user_team_mgmt_extended.py $PYTHON_SDC_TEST_MONITOR_API_TOKEN $TEAM_NAME example-user@example-domain.com
-
-docker stop sysdig-agent
-
diff --git a/test/test_secure_apis.sh b/test/test_secure_apis.sh
index 203852b7..ba97d491 100644
--- a/test/test_secure_apis.sh
+++ b/test/test_secure_apis.sh
@@ -131,14 +131,12 @@ fi
 
 echo $OUT
 
-# Start an agent using this account's api key and trigger some events
-docker run -d -it --rm --name sysdig-agent --privileged --net host --pid host -e COLLECTOR=collector-staging.sysdigcloud.com -e ACCESS_KEY=$PYTHON_SDC_TEST_ACCESS_KEY -v /var/run/docker.sock:/host/var/run/docker.sock  -v /dev:/host/dev -v /proc:/host/proc:ro -v /boot:/host/boot:ro -v /lib/modules:/host/lib/modules:ro -v /usr:/host/usr:ro -e ADDITIONAL_CONF="security: {enabled: true}\ncommandlines_capture: {enabled: true}\nmemdump: {enabled: true}" --shm-size=350m sysdig/agent
-
+# Trigger some events
 FOUND=0
 
 for i in $(seq 10); do
-    sleep 10
     sudo touch /bin/some-file.txt
+    sleep 10
 
     EVTS=`$SCRIPTDIR/../examples/get_secure_policy_events.py $PYTHON_SDC_TEST_API_TOKEN 60`
 
@@ -147,8 +145,6 @@ for i in $(seq 10); do
        break;
     fi
 done
-docker logs sysdig-agent
-docker stop sysdig-agent
 
 if [[ $FOUND == 0 ]]; then
    echo "Did not find any policy events after 10 attempts..."