Patent ID: 8347403

Claim:
A system comprising: at least one processor programmed to control one or more of: a first Web service unit configured to provide a first Web service, the first Web service unit is associated with a first security policy for accessing the first Web service; a second Web service unit configured to provide a second Web service, the second Web service unit is associated with a second security policy for accessing the second Web service; an authentication unit configured to enforce the first security policy of the first Web service unit and the second security policy of the second Web service unit; a policy merger configured to merge the authentication unit security policy acceptable by the authentication unit with a security policy acceptable by a requested Web service to generate merged security policy information; and a policy message generator configured to generate a message including the merged security policy information, wherein the authentication unit defines an authentication unit security policy acceptable by the authentication unit for inbound Web service requests, wherein the authentication unit is a single point authentication component, and the authentication unit authenticates access to the first Web service if a request to access the first Web service is received from a client, and authenticates access to the second Web service if a request to access the second Web service is received from the client, wherein the first security policy of the first Web service is different than the second security policy of the second Web service, and wherein the merged security policy information identifies a security token acceptable by both the authentication unit and the requested Web service.