Thursday, April 5, 2007

Web services security standard launched

THE room full of engineers known as the Web Services Interoperability Organisation (aka WS-I) has published its long-awaited WS-I Basic Security Profile 1.0 material for public access.

WS-I is the global, open industry organisation whose members promote Web services interoperability across different vendor’s platform, operating systems and programming languages.

It’s a pointy-headed collective that makes sure the world’s computer systems are built so they can talk to each other. Its members are battle-hardened engineers who understand precisely how bloody fights between corporations over standards can get.

And ultimately the agreements made within the rooms of WS-I save corporate and government users countless millions globally, and allow coherent and workable new services and conveniences to be delivered to end-users. Statues should be built.

“Publishing the WS-I Basic Security Profile 1.0 is a major step toward achieving WS I’s objective of advancing interoperability for secure Web services,” WS-I chairman and president Michael Bechauf said in a statement.

“I congratulate the many WS-I members who have worked to make BSP 1.0 a reality,” Mr Bechauf said.

The WS-I BSP 1.0 is an essential guide for ensuring secure, interoperable Web services.

The WS-I Board approved BSP 1.0 after receiving confirmation that five members – IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle and SAP – demonstrated interoperability. Following Board approval, the document was submitted to WSI's membership, who voted to approve BSP 1.0.

“Security is a concern to any organisation operating in the Web services sphere,” said the BSP Working Group chairman, Paul Cotton.

“The WS-I Basic Security Profile 1.0 provides a strong foundation for the development of secure, yet interoperable Web services. We in the Working Group are now working on BSP 1.1, which builds upon that strong foundation.”

The WS-I Basic Security Profile addresses transport security, SOAP messaging security and other security considerations for WS-I Basic Profile 1.1, Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0 and Attachments Profile 1.0.

Specifically, the BSP1.0 focuses on the interoperability characteristics of two technologies: HTTP over TLS and Web Services Security: SOAP Message Security.

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