IBM Aims to ‘SMash’ Web 2.0 Threats

IBM has announced a technology to secure enterprise mashups — the applications built from cobbling together data from multiple sources.

SMash — short for “Secure Mashup” — compartmentalizes the underlying code of the applications combined in a mashup. The partitioned code is then brought together through a secured channel.

Mashups are a part of IBM’s broader agenda of infusing business applications with Web 2.0 features to improve workplace collaboration, data accessibility and, ultimately, the business decisions that companies make.

“Web 2.0 is fundamentally about empowering people, and has created a societal shift in the way we organize, access and use information,” IBM Fellow and Vice President Rod Smith said in a statement.

“Security concerns can’t be a complete inhibitor or clients lose out on the immense benefit mashups bring,” he said.

In October, IBM first unveiled its Mashup Starter Kit, a suite of tools for non-technical workers to create mashup applications through an intuitive series of mouse clicks.

Using an enterprise mashup, companies could — for instance — pair real-time traffic or weather data with distribution schedules to ensure that shipping routes are not disrupted.

A recent study conducted by IBM’s X-Force Security Team highlighted the need for securing Web browsers, finding that they are becoming the entry point to sensitive data for increasingly sophisticated cyber criminals. Hacking a browser would enable crooks to access data behind the company’s firewall.

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