Standards for Web Services Security

Abstract

Over time, different languages, mechanisms, and tools have been developed on different software and hardware platforms for specifying and implementing a variety of security mechanisms, such as encryption and access control. In a Web service setting, security mechanisms protect the confidentiality and integrity of the so-called information in transit, that is, the data and messages exchanged between a client and aWeb service, and of the so-called information at rest, that is, the information stored in a Web host. Furthermore, protection of the information must not only consider simple two-way client-server interactions, but also extend to more complex interactions, as in the case of business processes implemented through multiple Web services.