Microsoft bolsters Web services security
Microsoft released on Tuesday a toolkit designed to help software programmers tighten security in Web services applications.
The toolkit, called Web Services Enhancements (WSE) version 2, will let companies use the latest security capabilities from Microsoft and other software giants like IBM and Sun Microsystems. The software makers are bolstering security in an effort to drive adoption of Web services software.

Web services are a set of programming conventions and XML-based standards for building applications that can share information easily. Businesses are currently using Web services as a way to transport data between disparate systems. But tighter security for data transmitted via the Internet and private networks remains a barrier to wide-scale usage, according to analysts and customers.

WSE version 2 is designed to simplify the process of securing communications between parties and of ensuring the identity of people in a business transaction, according to Microsoft executives. The toolkit implements a number of security-related specifications that were co-authored by Microsoft, including WS-Policy, WS-SecurityPolicy, WS-Trust, WS-SecureConversation and WS-Addressing.

These published specifications, which are not yet widely adopted industry standards, are designed to work with Web Services Security, another Microsoft-backed security specification now being standardized at OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards.

WSE version 2 is available from Microsoft's developer Web site. http://msdn.microsoft.com

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