The growing use of RSS in the enterprise has heightened interest in RSS security. Some enterprises are experimenting with private feeds with password protection, or even using RSS for document management.

VeriSign is among the companies already developing RSS security products for the corporate market. CEO Stratton Sclavos announced in a presentation in mid-May that VeriSign plans to provide feed, content and identity management products to help prevent RSS and the companion Atom format from being abused for spam, phishing and other security threats.

VeriSign isn’t saying much about its plans for RSS products, but obvious possibilities include bundling an RSS feed generator and client that can exchange data securely. VeriSign will be competing with existing RSS service providers such as NewsGator and HexaMail, which each have enterprise RSS offerings.

There have been no high-profile security events yet involving RSS, which may lead to complacency about its security. But many delivery methods for spam, spyware, malware and trojans were difficult to imagine just a few short years ago. Amid the excitement of Friday’s announcement, the community of RSS developers and users has an opportunity to discuss those lessons and apply them in securing the future of RSS.