Incorporating WS‐Security into a Web services‐based portal

Software reuse and systems interoperability have been the primary goals of many IT organizations as a means to curb software cost. While there were spots of success over the years, the state of the industry with respect to reuse and interoperability is still lagging. Two main reasons are: lack of standards and security barriers imposed on many software systems. Web service, a self‐describing service that can easily be consumed over the Web, is the latest trend in the industry to address the problems identified above. Based on XML and HTTP, Web services make it possible for involved parties across networks to communicate and produce/consume a service in a uniform manner. This paper describes the incorporation of Web services security (WS‐Security) into a project that integrates Web services into a Web‐based college admission portal system. With the incorporation of WS‐Security, the project showcases how the aforementioned problems together with security issues can be addressed using some of the burgeoning Web services technologies.