Microsoft's last failed attempt to control and tax Internet authentication and financial transactions... renamed so you can trust it!
http://newsvac.newsforge.com/newsvac/02/06/16/1420211.shtml?tid=9 "The implementation is based around Kerberos v5, but it seems to be clearly an ActiveDirectory-only implementation. I.e., you'll need a Kerberos client built for Microsoft's extensions so it can interoperate with ActiveDirectory. In a nutshell it seems like their Hailstorm Initiative flopped, but some companies were far more receiptive to just using the existing infrastructure offered with ActiveDirectory. And don't be surprised if Microsoft starts marketing it as a "more open, industry-standard technology" than Sun's Liberty Alliance because it uses Kerberos c/o ActiveDirectory. "One of the quotes in the eWeek article of the .NET product manager was a bit scary IMHO: '...it would be much more efficient if we could accept the identity generated by somebody's employer. We need to get to a world where identity can flow between organizations.' "As if we didn't have enough of an issue keeping our employers from reselling our info, asking for our signature so they can do a "credit check" for some unknown reason (even though we might not be in a priviledged/cleared position to warrant one), etc... Assuming Microsoft markets this to employers, I'm sure they will "gobble" this up. I mean, they'll say "hey, now we have a single, interrelated system to manage our employes, both internal and external (e.g., employment/salary verification, etc...), and we'll be paid to give out our employee's info at the same time!" Maybe I'm looking at this wrong, but this scares me more than Hailstorm ever did! (read more in the article, with links to CNET article)