http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/04/11/020411hnwebservices.xml

MICROSOFT, IBM, AND Verisign have devised a way to add integrity- and confidentiality-checking capabilities to upcoming Web services applications, a first step in a broader joint effort to secure Web services, the companies said Thursday.

The jointly developed specification, dubbed WS-Security, defines a set of SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) extensions and describes how to exchange secure and signed messages in a Web services environment, providing a foundation for Web services security, Microsoft, IBM, and Verisign said in a joint statement.