# Rails + PHP REST web service security

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-php-rest-web-service-security/146305>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 19, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-php-rest-web-service-security/146305 "2008-08-19T22:28:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![peter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/278dde/32.png) [@peter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/peter)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-php-rest-web-service-security/146305/1 "2008-08-19T22:28:37Z")

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Hey guys,

I want to ensure secure communication between our rails application  
and a REST web service on an external server running php.

What are some of the ways of accomplishing this? Do we need to use ssl  
to encrypt the information traveling between the two to prevent packet  
sniffing?

Do we also need to encrypt the xml data itself?

If anyone knows of any links, articles, or resources they would be  
appreciated.

Thanks.