Microsoft, IBM and VeriSign have submitted a security specification for Web services to an industry standards body, a move that has won the backing of an unlikely supporter: Sun Microsystems.
WS-Security is a 2-month-old technology that encrypts information and ensures that data passed between companies remains confidential. Its three creators--Microsoft, IBM and VeriSign--said Thursday they have submitted the specification to a standards body called the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS).
Sun had been devising its own rival Web services security specification, but the royalty-free licensing of WS-Security specifications allayed Sun"s concerns, a source familiar with the negotiations said.
Sun will now focus all its development work on WS-Security and work with its rivals to improve the specification through the OASIS group, said Bill Smith, Sun"s director of Liberty Alliance technology.