bits & bytes - Ping! Zine Web Tech Magazine

SERVER SECURITY
site assurance seals include those offered
by the Better Business Bureau® (www.
bbb.org – certifying business practices),
TRUSTe (www.truste.org – certifying
privacy and assurance practices), and
HackerGuardian (www.hackerguardian.
com – certifying vulnerability-free
hardware). When combined with industry
specific accreditations, the branding mix
offers a compelling level of trust and
assurance to new visitors.
Site seals were initially proven to be most
effective when used on landing pages and/
or home pages, providing confidence at the
time of arrival to the website. However as
search engines now efficiently index entire
sites, the possibility exists that any page
becomes a landing page and therefore
needs to evoke trust and assurance
immediately. The latest evolution in site
seal technology – “Corner of TrustLogo”
– was announced by Comodo last month,
and offers a consistent image which can
be used across an entire website. With
active “Point to Verify®” technology, the
seal allows essential trust credentials to
be presented to users by simply moving
a mouse across the seal. Therefore, a
combination of High Assurance SSL
and the associated site assurance seals,
together with the right mix of third party
trust providers, can provide a baseline ITA
infrastructure.
But how do emergent brands also evoke
trust in their own brand? There are two
possibilities – visitors may recognize the
name of the organization, or they may
not. If they do, they need some way to
verify that they truly are the company they
claim to be (or an authorized member of
a credentialed organization), which will
enable them to decide whether to entrust
it with their card details (and their money).
If they do not recognize the company,
they need to be provided with a method to
verify that a trusted third party recognizes
the organization. For example, consider
the way a currency exchange works:
Bank notes handed to a traveler may be
completely unrecognizable to a traveler, not
having visited that particular destination
before, however trust is provided by
the currency exchange that the notes are
genuine. Also, the notes themselves have
verification technologies built into them,
such that the traveller is able to recognise
alternative denominations on arrival at
their destination.
In much the same way, ‘Content
Verification’ technologies such as
VerificationEngine (www.vengine.
com ) are freely available to consumers,
such that by simply moving their mouse
over a logo or brand, an indicator will
appear around the border of their system
if the brand is to be trusted. As advocacy
groups continue the process of education,
these technologies will herald a new level
of understanding in consumers. This will
in turn drive merchants to increase still
further their ITA infrastructure, building
more confidence into the internet, building
trust in the internet and a still further
increased demand for e-businesses.
P!
PING! ZINE WRITER BIO
Steve Roylance is the Technical Marketing
Director for Comodo, based in their European
Headquarters in Manchester, UK. Steve is
directly responsible for the implementation
of the go-to- market strategy for the Identity
and Trust Assurance product range,
funneling the feedback from major partners
into the various development groups, and
harnessing the power of Comodo’s Digital
Trust Lab to bring to market an ever widening
portfolio of ITA products.
40 Ping! Zine Web Hosting Magazine