Microsoft introduced a new online security service

Microsoft Live Labs has just officially launched two new online security services - Security Token Service (STS) and Relay Service.

New services are part of Microsoft's plan to offer online services to compete with rivals such as Google or Yahoo.

Security Token Service (STS) is an online identity account management service. This service allows users to register their personal information on a virtual information card using Microsoft authentication service - the code name of the service is InfoCard. After registering to use STS, every time a user accesses a site with InfoCard integration, they can log in to the site using the information stored on the virtual information card.

Microsoft sees InfoCard as the safest and simplest authentication technology that can replace the login system with username and password being applied on many web sites today. Microsoft officially introduced InfoCard technology in early February as part of the Windows Vista operating system version. However, many users believe that Microsoft's new technology will also "dive" like the Microsoft Passport service it launched a few years ago with similar features - allowing users to log in. Many different websites with just one account.

Relay Service is a service developed on the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) platform that supports peer-to-peer connectivity through devices such as firewalls or network address translation (NAT) devices. WCF is an integrated technology in Windows Vista that allows many different systems to connect and communicate with each other using web services. Meanwhile, NAT helps hide the internal network address of the access systems.

Users can access new Microsoft services through two sts.labs.live.com and relay.labs.live.com websites.

Hoang Dung