Content | DATA SHEET HOW EXTENDED VALIDATION SSL CAN HELP INCREASE ONLINE TRANSACTIONS AND IMPROVE CUSTOMER CONFIDENCE THE PROBLEM OF PHISHING AND ONLINE FRAUD Phishing scams and online fraud have created an environment of fear and doubt among online consumers. Phishing is a form of “man-in-the-middle” attack that uses emails and web sites that appear legitimate to trick visitors into sharing personal information. These types of attacks were developed by hackers to circumvent SSL’s end-to-end capabilities. The phishing threat remains real, and continues to grow. The total number of unique phishing reports submitted to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) in December 2009 was 46,190.1 Even if you are not a target, phishing casts its net far and wide and it has a detrimental effect on consumer confidence: 73% of U.S. Internet users are extremely threatened by identity theft.2 U.S. adults indicate online security awareness has grown tremendously in the past two years. A recent study found that 62% are more concerned about their online security:3 > 48% are more concerned about giving personal information for fear of cybercriminals. > 36% are less likely to give their credit card information because of concern that it will be intercepted and stolen. To re-establish consumer trust, web site owners needed an easy, reliable way to show consumers that their transactions were secure and that their web site was legitimate. To meet the challenge, security and Internet browser vendors combined forces, through the CA Browser Forum, to establish the Extended Validation (EV) standard for SSL Certificates. THE SOLUTION: EV SSL When consumers visit a web site secured with an EV SSL Certificate, the browser address bar turns green (in high-security browsers) and a special field appears with the name of the legitimate web site owner along with the name of the security provider that issued the EV SSL Certificate. EV SSL provides an extra layer of protection for consumers and web site operators by requiring third-party Certificate Authorities (CA) to follow a strict issuance and management process, as defined by the CA/Browser Forum, for certificate approval and delivery. VERISIGN: THE LEADER IN SECURITY AND TRUST VeriSign is the world’s leading provider of SSL Certificates. This leadership includes EV SSL. To date, over 24,000 Web sites have deployed EV SSL Certificates, and VeriSign is the provider of choice for over 17,000 of them.4 VeriSign’s EV SSL customer list includes the biggest names in e-commerce and banking. 97 of the world’s top 100 banks that use SSL, as well as 93% of the Fortune 500 that use SSL, use SSL Certificates sold by VeriSign.5 |