A streams manager assesses the security risk of streams communication and when possible turns off encryption of intranode communication between operators of a streaming application on a computer node to increase performance of the computer node. The streams manager includes a stream security module (SSM) with a monitor that monitors risk in the system and changes encryption between operators on a node depending on the risk. The stream security module may use security data and node profile data collected by the monitor or the system to determine the risk. The stream security module may provide recommendations to a customer for the customer to override changes in encryption.