Entrust outlines Web services strategy

Entrust Inc. outlined its plans to develop security software to protect transactions and requests made through XML-based Web services.

Entrust said it plans to deliver the first software components for its Secure Transaction Platform next month. The Verification Service component, for instance, would provide digital signatures and timestamps to transactions made via Web services.

Plans call for Entrust to supply software components to be used with IBM WebSphere, BEA Systems WebLogic and Microsoft .Net to identify users through password-based authentication and to determine what their online entitlements might be.

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Entrust Inc. outlined its plans to develop security software to protect transactions and requests made through XML-based Web services.

Entrust said it plans to deliver the first software components for its Secure Transaction Platform next month. The Verification Service component, for instance, would provide digital signatures and timestamps to transactions made via Web services.

Plans call for Entrust to supply software components to be used with IBM WebSphere, BEA Systems WebLogic and Microsoft .Net to identify users through password-based authentication and to determine what their online entitlements might be.

"By the first quarter of next year we will have software products for identification, which would be an XML interface for password authentication," said Leah Macmillan, Entrust's director of solutions marketing. These XML security components will be marketed under the name Identification and Entitlement Services.

Entrust will support the Security Assurance Markup Language protocol that lets applications determine whether someone has a right to interact with specific Web services.

These Web services software components are expected to become part of the next version of Entrust's public-key interchange toolkit, Entrust Authority 7.0. Pricing is not yet available.

In addition to announcing its strategic direction on Web services, Entrust said it intends to ship Entrust Messaging Server next month for conducting certificate lookup and validation for secure e-mail based on the S/MIME standard. The Entrust server will support Lotus Notes, Outlook Exchange and SMTP-based mail. The cost for the software is $60,000 for 5,000 users.

Entrust will also start a hosted Web service for e-mail certificates based on Entrust Messaging Server. This is intended as a no-cost service for users of its Entrust Messaging Server, allowing enterprise users to direct anyone outside their organization to the Entrust Web site to get a complimentary Digital ID if they don't already have one.