US Patent 8402525 Web services security system and method

An exemplary method includes (1) receiving a web service request for a particular web service, along with user identification credentials, from a web service subscriber, the request and the credentials being received into a service agent of a web service publisher, (2) determining whether the credentials are cached in the service agent, and further, whether the credentials are valid, (3) in response to a determination that the credentials are not cached in the service agent, initiating a security service to authorize the web service subscriber to access the particular web service, (4) in response to a determination that the credentials are cached in the service agent and are invalid, responding to the web service subscriber with an error message, and (5) in response to a determination that the credentials are cached in the service agent and are valid, passing the web service request to the particular web service for access.