PALO ALTO, Calif.-Microsoft Corp. announced it plans to expand its Passport authentication service, which allows users to have a single user name or password to access any Web site, to other enterprises and network operators.
The company said that by doing so it hopes to create an “Internet trust network,” enabling Internet users to access Web sites or services with a single user name and password. Microsoft plans to extend its service by supporting Kerberos 5.0, an authentication standard that provides a secure mechanism for creating trusted relationships across normally incompatible authentication systems.
In order to push the trust network idea, Microsoft reportedly invited competitors, such as AOL Time Warner Inc., to open authentication services in the same way.
