Companies Join Net Security Alliance

NEW YORK CITY--Telecommunications and computer companies are joining forces to develop standards for multimedia network applications and to make the Internet more secure, dependable, and user-friendly.

Calling itself the Multimedia Services Affiliate Forum, a consortium, which, among other companies, includes AT&T, Novell, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Deutsche Telekom, and IBM's Lotus unit, has been working on Internet standards for the past few months.

The group invited computer hardware and software companies and telecommunications firms to meetings held earlier this month in New York. According to a New York Times report, three-quarters of the 38 companies in attendance said they intend to join the consortium.