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| Emerchants Help Consumers Stay Safe Online with Comodo Certificates with Green Trust Indicators According to a recent study by Consumers Telecommunications Network, titled Surfing on Thin Ice, (June 2007), a significant number of consumers (approximately 75%) are aware that shopping online can pose risks to their identities should their sensitive information be stolen. While consumers are keenly aware of the dangers, more than half (approximately 53%) do not feel they have adequate methods to protect themselves. For both current and prospective eMerchants, particularly newer and smaller ones, consumers' lack of trust with online merchants can make the job of starting or growing an online business much more difficult. To combat this problem, Comodo is offering several solutions that can help eMerchants achieve consumer trust. One effective solution are Comodo's line of digital certificates that can be incorporated into an eMerchant's website which provide new conspicuous visual "trust indicators" that assure consumers of a site's authenticity before they provide any sensitive information. To help consumers overcome concerns about shopping online, merchants can provide reassuring green "trust indicators" signifying that they are on trustworthy, authenticated site in the form of a green browser address bar in Comodo Extended Validation SSL Certificates, and a green box outlining their entire computer display in the case of Comodo Content Verification Certificates. When deployed in tandem, these solutions provide a new level of consumer trust assurance that covers the entire user online experience, starting from when a consumer enters the site and providing assurance up to when their transaction has been completed. CVCs are digital certificates that confirm the authenticity of various types of website content such as login boxes and company logos. These digital certificates tie any content designated by the certificate holder to a specific IP address or URL controlled by the content owner. Once the content is secured, consumers using a free downloaded plug-in called VerificationEngine, verifies that this content belongs to that site and not a phishing site. Today, CVCs are being used to protect the corporate logos of over 200,000 eMerchants. A bank or credit union installs a CVC on their site to secure their login box or their rate card content. Jane Doe goes to the bank's site and moves her cursor to the login box area. With VerificationEngine, she will see a green border appear around her screen along with the words "authenticated by Comodo" confirming that the presented content is the bank's legitimate website. Because the verification happens BEFORE Jane Doe discloses any information, the risk of falling victim to a phishing attack is greatly reduced. SSL certificates are used by millions of online merchants to encrypt a customer's credit card details and other sensitive information during online purchases. With EV SSL certificates consumers also get a visual reassurance about a site's identity. Extended Validation (EV) Certificates provide web site visitors with an easy and reliable green trust indicator in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7. Web pages containing an EV SSL certificate (pages where the consumer will enter sensitive information) will display a green address bar that confirms the identity of the Extended Validation certificate owner. Before EV SSL certificates are issued, applicants undergo a rigorous verification process that is designed to make it very difficult for fraudulent parties to obtain this kind of SSL Certificate while keeping the process simple and straightforward for legitimate business owners. Jane Doe, a consumer, has decided to make an online purchase from a website. She navigates to the purchase page which has been secured with an EV SSL certificate. Once she reaches this page, Jane Doe will see the address bar "go green" that indicates the presence of an EV certificate. The green bar assures Jane that the site is safe and has been verified by a trustworthy Certification Authority such as Comodo. The EV SSL Certificate also provides the name of the certificate holder, the name of the Certificate Authority that verified the certificate holder, and a notice that the user's connection to the website server is encrypted. Summary Together, CVCs with VerificationEngine and EV SSL certificates provide site visitors with powerful new visual trust indicators. These Green Trust indicators deliver a new level of confidence from the moment the consumer reaches the site until they are ready to buy, which means an eMerchant will stand a greater chance of overcoming consumers' ongoing concerns about safely transacting business online. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Computing News :: home page |