Earlier this year, the CA/Browser Forum (cabforum.org), a voluntary organization of leading certification authorities and vendors of Internet browser software and other applications, met to establish stringent standards and guidelines to enforce Internet security and combat fraud. Over the course of several meetings, the CA/Browser Forum created a standardized authentication process for a new, enhanced Extended Validation SSL certificate that would require all certificate authorities to adhere, which included an independent audit to confirm compliance.
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This week, intelligent infrastructure provider VeriSign (verisign.com) announced it has become one of the first to offer the newly enhanced EV SSL certificates, which will help protect users against online fraudulent activity by providing third party verification of a Web site’s authenticity. “We want to restore users’ trust in online transactions by providing a reliable method for sites to identify themselves definitively to their visitors,” says Monisha Khanna, senior manager of corporate communications for VeriSign Security Services.
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VeriSign’s EV SSL certificates enable customers to set up their Web sites so that when customers visit, the site will display a visual cue that they are who they claim to be and that their online transactions are secured by encryption. When a user enters a URL in a supporting high-security browser such as IE7, the browser address bar will turn green, confirming the site’s identity using reliable authentication methodology.
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Using EV Upgrader technology, the green browser bar will also show the registered organization’s name and the name of the SSL provider, which allows site visitors to verify the actual name of the businesses they are dealing with online. Currently, the company says the VeriSign Secured Seal is displayed on over 65,000 Web properties and viewed by consumers approximately 100 million times per day.
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Although e-commerce Web sites would greatly benefit from the new digital certificates, Khanna says that they are intended for any Web site that is seeking to maintain the confidence of their visitors. “These sites include not only e-commerce sites, banks, taxes, securities trading and the like, but in fact any site dealing in information that the visitor might consider sensitive,” says Khanna. “Any site with a login or any site that shares confidential information with the customer needs to seriously consider EV certificates.”
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The certificates support both Microsoft’s IE7 and Vista operating systems, while new versions of leading Internet browsers will allow visitors to instantly recognize that a given page has been authenticated by an EV SSL-issuing CA. This combination of EV SSL certificates and new browser versions will help Internet users confirm that the Web sites they are visiting are actually the ones they expect to access and not fraudulent ones posing as popular sites.
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This will make it increasingly difficult for phishing attackers to successfully impersonate high-traffic Web sites. Although many other digital security certificate providers are currently offering the EV SSL certificates, or have announced plans to do so, Khanna says VeriSign has had a positive response, issuing the first of these certificates to online retailer Overstock.com (overstock.com). “We’ve received a great deal of interest from a broad variety of customers of all sizes and across all segments,” says Khanna.
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“Overstock.com is a great example of a leader in online commerce who recognizes the importance of maximizing trust with its customers. We expect a great many similar online leaders to adopt EV in the months to come.”
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