Improving Microservices Security

To support fle xibility and scalability, 5 G networks have embraced microservice-based architectures, which require secure and efficient inter-service communication. This is managed by the service mesh layer, which is now a growing target for cyberattacks. While existing platforms like Istio and NGINX use mutual TLS (mTLS) to secure communications, mTLS imposes considerable resource overhead, undermining the goals of scalability and lightweight operation. To overcome this challenge, we propose an Encryption as a Service (EaaS) framework for Kubernetes that mitigates common attacks such as man-in-the-middle, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), and eavesdropping. Experimental analysis shows that EaaS significantly improves response time and reduces adversary success compared to traditional microservice-side cryptographic handling, with gains varying across different scenarios and cryptographic/deception configurations. While higher EaaS replication slightly increases CPU and memory usage, it leads to better security outcomes and faster service performance. The successful real-world implementation and deployment of the EaaS framework further corroborated these fin dings.