Security issues

New Straits Times
12-19-2001
Security issues
Edition: 2*
Section: Connect

EXPOSING data to third parties raises the question of security but vendors say that existing technologies such as firewalls, encryption and PKI are sufficient, providing they are implemented and used properly.

Microsoft and Sun, through the Liberty Alliance, each are proposing solutions to enable single sign-on authentication over the Internet so that users do not have to remember lots of different passwords and repeatedly log on to sites and services.
Rob Hailstone, International Data Corporation (IDC)'s analyst, says that this could be the first sign of a crack in vendor co- operation and a single standard must be reached. If not, it could jeopardise the entire uptake of Web services, he says.

Yet not all vendors are getting carried away with the concept of Web services. Compaq EMEA's Cara Antoine Kolpatzik, business manager, says public sites and user experience injects some reality into the debate. "Web services is still very visionary at this stage. I believe there is still a lot of work to be done before we could achieve this.

The time frame suggested for Web services going live by the end of 2002 is short-sighted because the complexity of these solutions is greater than perhaps people can imagine." If the Compaq merger with HP goes ahead the story may change because HP already has its own Web services offerings. As Kolpatzik confirms that Compaq does not have a road map for Web services, this could be one area where there is no overlap between the pair.

(Copyright 2001)