Web services promise to automate business processes and give their adapters the speed and agility to exist and grow in their markets. But a web services strategy will fail if proper security processes are not part of the overall strategy, according to Forum Systems. The company, with offices in Sandy, UT and Waltham, MA, has developed a white paper that examines this situation.

“By automating change, businesses can adapt rapidly to customer needs and market conditions,” the paper points out. Customers can be served with unprecedented promptness. Partners can be assured of up-to-date information. Trading networks can reshape themselves through available optimized transactional alternatives rather than through lengthy, expensive custom application development.”

But web services, like all IT projects, are vulnerable to security threats, the company notes. “Web services were built for speed and convenience rather than safetym,” the white paper says. “By transmitting proprietary data over public networks and between distributed participants whose trustworthiness maybe unknown, and by automating processes that formerly took place under the watchful eye of management, Web services can very easily expose mission-critical business processes to attack, infiltration, and corruption.”

The white paper outlines a variety of potential threats, and encourages developers and IT managers “to assess the needs to be met and then to identify a solution hat best fits those needs, precisely and affordably. Enterprises should be wary of investing in generic, one-size-fits-all security solutions or solving a security challenge with a battery of costly and complex products.”

It points out that “such over-engineered solutions are difficult to maintain and may create their own set of vulnerabilities if features are neglected or poorly understood. Malicious users can take advantage of underutilized functions and turn the organization’s investment against itself.”

The white paper presents a detailed analysis of how web services developers and managers can best equip themselves against these security threats, posing many scenarios, approaches, and recommendations. It can be found at www.forumsystems.com