The rise in practical Virtual Organisations (VOs) requires secure access to data and interactions between their partners. Ad hoc solutions to meet these requirements are possible, but Web services hold out the potential for generic security solutions whose cost can be spread across several short lived dynamic VOs. This paper identifies trust and security requirements throughout the VO lifecycle and analyse current Web Services specifications to show their suitability to meet these requirements. Although they demonstrate the potential for generic security support, there are uncertainties concerning different level of interoperability and stability of implementation for different specifications, which may slow down their exploitation for security-critical business applications. However, research in Web services developments are well timed to avoid losing first adopter advantage when they become stable.
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