Web services are widely seen as growth area. The term describes software that is made available from a business's web server for use by individuals or by other web-connected programs.
According to the companies, WS-Security defines a standard set of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) extensions, or message headers, that can be used to implement integrity and confidentiality in web services applications.
SOAP is an XML-based industry protocol for accessing Web services in a platform-and-language-independent manner. WS-Security provides standard mechanisms to exchange secure, signed messages in a web services environment, and provides what the companies call an important foundation layer that will help developers build more secure and broadly interoperable web services.
The WS-Security specification and the companies’ "Security in a Web Services World" road map are available on IBM’s site.