Problem
Scenario
You own service-to-service authentication for internal APIs that handle trip state, pricing decisions, and limited customer data. Today, many callers authenticate with long-lived API keys stored in Kubernetes secrets and sent on every request through the edge and service mesh. A recent incident showed one key was copied from a debug log and reused from an unexpected workload, and leadership wants a stronger default for east-west traffic. You are evaluating whether to keep API keys, move to mTLS, or use both.
Question
How would you compare the security benefits and tradeoffs of mTLS versus traditional API keys for internal API authentication, and what architecture would you recommend for a modern zero-trust environment? Be explicit about the threats each approach does and does not mitigate, how identity is established, and how you would verify the controls are working in production.
Practicing as: Security Engineer interview at LyftHi, I'll play your Lyft interviewer for the Security Engineer role. Answer the question above like we're in the room, and I'll respond the way a real interviewer would.
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