Web Services are a promising solution to an age-old need: fast and flexible information sharing among people and businesses. They represent the next phase of distributed computing, building on the shoulders of the previous distributed models. Web Services leverage the ubiquity of the Internet to link applications, systems, and resources within and among enterprises to enable exciting, new business processes and relationships with customers, partners, and suppliers around the world. They enable access to data that has previously been locked within corporate networks and accessible only by using specialized software. Along with the benefits of Web Services comes a serious risk: sensitive and private data can be exposed to people who are not supposed to see it. The security issues of Web Services in a distributed environment are a major concern of research. Web Services will never attain their tremendous potential unless we learn how to manage the associated risks. The paper therefore focuses on the general framework of security issues and the proposed solution to web services security risks.
