SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Building on Forum Systems’ leadership in SOA security, Forum today announced the release of Forum Sentry™ Security Token Service (STS). Forum Sentry STS is an enterprise-grade OASIS WS-Trust security token server that is deployed to extend existing identity management systems within a federated Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). As organizations look to connect user-centric activity with Web Services, there is critical need to manage distributed identities and correlate security information.

Using WS-Trust, the Forum Sentry STS automates the validation of security tokens and enables identities to be exchanged for both browser-based and machine-to-machine applications. WS-Trust is the standard mechanism by which clients delegate the processing of security tokens that are embedded within Web Service messages.

Enabling Federated Security

As enterprises connect, automate and orchestrate business processes, they also need to integrate application security. A user that relies on a Web portal as their workspace may, for example, be provided links to access their online bank account, Salesforce.com calendar or Oracle Inventory Management.

The user may be asked to submit a username and password to log in to the portal interface. However, other services may require the user to re-authenticate using another credential type such as Kerberos or SAML token. Intermediary applications may also exist that require specific security information to fulfill requests. A federated security and identity strategy would let the user sign-on with a single authentication method. Security content, such as privileges and personally identifiable information, would be seamlessly propagated to each application.

Forum Sentry STS enables enterprises to take full advantage of the benefits of a SOA by integrating disparate security mechanisms as well as offering the policy management needed to establish and maintain the trust relationships for loosely coupled Web Services.

Forum Sentry™ STS Features and Benefits

Forum Sentry STS is deployed by enterprises as a trusted third-party to users, Web Service clients and Web Service providers. Forum Sentry STS features include federated security management, interoperable security tokens and identity-governed policy enforcement. A Web Service client can ask to be authenticated and authorized for specific requests, exchange security tokens or translate associated claims to an understandable syntax. Forum Sentry STS allows enterprises to manage security token processing functions using a brokered trust model, which avoids the need for many-to-many trust relationships between Web Service consumers and producers.

Forum Sentry STS supports a wide variety of security token formats including SAML, X.509, Username, Kerberos as well as custom token formats defined by Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems. An easy to use Web-based administration console is designed for policy-driven configuration in support of any number of federated security use cases.

Forum Sentry STS ships as a network appliance to reduce software configuration costs and support real-time, high-performance transactions. It supports the OASIS WS-Trust specification for issuing, renewing, canceling, and validating security tokens. The appliance is available immediately from Forum Systems and its worldwide resellers.

About Forum Systems

Forum Systems, Inc. is the Leader in Web Services and SOA Security™ infrastructure with a comprehensive suite of trust management and threat protection solutions for the automated Web. Forum Systems' flexible hardware, software and embedded products make vibrant business communications possible by actively protecting XML data and Web Services across networks and business boundaries. Forum's products have been chosen by over 150 Fortune 1000 industry leaders and are winners of Network Computing Magazine's Well-Connected 2006 and 2004 Awards and Product of the Year 2004 Award, Network Computing Magazine's Editor's Choice 2003 Award, Network Magazine's Product of the Year 2003 Award and most recently "Most Outstanding Product of the Year 2006" Well-Connected Award by CMP Media. Forum XWall Web Services Firewall was also the industry's only XML Firewall selected by InfoWorld LEADERBOARD 2004.

Visit Forum at http://www.forumsys.com/

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Security Architect