Yesterday, the Authentication & Online Trust Alliance (AOTA) announced that more than 10,000 Web sites have adopted Extended Validation Security Socket Layer (EV SSL) certificates, up from 4,000 just 10 months ago. By January 2009, AOTA Chairman and Founder Craig Spiezle is confident that the number will reach closer to 12,000.
While the absolute number may not be as large considering the number of sites on the Web, Spiezle says, the mix is comprised of what he deems “the most impactful e-commerce sites,” some of which include:
- Bank of America;
- PayPal;
- Ebay;
- Schwab; and even
- Facebook.
Sites like Facebook aren’t typically classified in the same category as an e-commerce or online banking site, where trust is undoubtedly a more mission critical issue. Nevertheless, Spiezle says, due to the number of online trust issues, sites need to provide a high level of trust to ensure that consumers are communicating with the site they’re intending.
When the EV SSL certificate was launched in early 2007, PayPal was among the early adopters that had deployed the solution in late 2006, before its general availability. The online payment vendor was working on its on anti-phishing strategy around that time in an effort to help consumers “completely, reliably, and unambiguously” know they are on PayPal, says Michael Barrett, chief information security officer at PayPal. In the beginning, Barrett admits they didn’t know whether EV SSL would work (PayPal, at this point, was already 100 percent SSL but phishers quickly adapted and some even acquired their own SSL certificate, Barrett explains, but says it happened roughly only once a month). Sure enough, he says, “EV SSL was a gift from heaven to us.” Since 2006, PayPal has seen significant reduction, particularly in its attendance on the Top 3/Top 10 list for most phished Websites. As an online payment site, however, “we know we have the proverbial target printed on our backs,” Barrett says.
Whether or not the economic recession is motivating brands to beef up the security on their site may be anyone’s guess as consumers are certainly spending less and when they do, they want to know it’s going somewhere legitimate. No doubt, criminals rarely let an opportunity go to waste, taking advantage of “every calamity, every disaster,” Spiezle says, whether it’s seeking donations for earthquake victims in SiChuan, China, or preying on individuals struggling during the current mortgage and financial crisis.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has certainly seen its fair share of spoofed emails and Web sites soliciting personal and financial information from citizens. It announced yesterday, in conjunction with the AOTA’s announcement, that by January 1, 2009, all “authorized IRS e-file providers participating in online filing of individual income tax returns [are required to] possess a valid and current EV SSL certificate,” according to the press release. Moreover, sites are required to provide privacy and information on safeguard policies, as well as to report any security breaches. They are also required to obtain a privacy seal indicating their IRS-approved status.
No doubt increased site security is a relatively new issue site owners are having to address. A year ago, Spiezle, who is also the director online safety and security at Microsoft, notes that only one Web browser supported EV SSL and that was Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. At one point, Microsoft, he says, was identifying over 1,000 unique phishing sites on a daily basis. Now, nearly every mainstream browser (e.g., Firefox, Chrome, and Safari) supports the certificate. “It’s a great example of how the industry and businesses are working together to protect their brand and the consumer,” he says.
On Tuesday, we ran a news story about how marketers/businesses who have invested in online marketing and Web analytics are going to continue doing so. This, according to Jim Sterne, author of the report and founder of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit (eMOS), is a testament to the fact that those who are using these tools are seeing results and standing by them.
The Association of National Advertisers concluded its “Masters of Marketing” conference two weeks ago (Oct. 16-19) and it, too, launched a survey to its attendees. Though this one captured a much wider audience (approx. 1,400 attendees comprised of marketers, analysts, and agencies), results still point to a similar conclusion — marketing budgets, in general, aren’t plummeting as much as everyone had feared, as long as they’re showing the numbers (and the money). In fact, BtoB magazine will be hosting a Webcast tomorrow where Stefan Tournquist, Research Director at MarketingSherpa, “explains why cutting budgets in a tight economy may be a shortsighted approach.”
Check out the survey and results after the jump, as well as a few words from Barbara Bacci Mirque, executive vice president at the ANA.
Social CRM has invaded the conference scene. I can’t seem to get away from the topic — And I don’t want to. It’s fascinating and frankly, quite exciting. Last week at Gartner Web Innovation and Web Portals, Content, and Collaboration, enterprise 2.0 worked itself into quite a number of sessions. It comes as no surprise that Oracle OpenWorld is giving a shout-out to Social CRM, too.
Oracle’s Anthony Lye gave an “unplugged” session with the press this morning, reviewing the vendors social CRM standpoint. More on Oracle’s social apps to come. (I smell a destinationCRM.com story in the works). Oracle seems to have its eye on the prize when it comes to integrating enterprise data with social networking applications.
Throughout my travels, I have had some pretty interesting conversations revolving around the social Web and what social networking means for business. Most conference attendees I have come across seem to be very in tune with what’s going on. However, I did have lunch with some people last week who went on and on about the evils of Facebook. Both were IT workers for fairly large companies and both had blocked Facebook, MySpace and Flickr from employees. I nearly gasped when I heard this. “You’ve got it all wrong!” I wanted to shout.
Blocking Facebook will inevitably drive your employees to another social site because let’s face it, there’s no way to avoid Enterprise 2.0. If you block Facebook, shouldn’t you also block Wordpress and Blogger? Those are both social Web sites. What about Amazon or Digg? My point is, there’s no clear distinction when it comes to social networking. While Facebook might not be as relevant of a marketing tool for a financial firm as it is for say, an entertainment business, it’s still possible to gain business benefits from it. Take, for example, another conversation I had last night with a PR exec. He said he can barely deal with email anymore. His inbox gets so bogged down, if people really want to reach him, write on his Facebook wall.
According to an Avanade white paper, which is an IT consultancy based on Microsoft technologies, with research provided by Coleman Parkes, 58 percent of companies agree that senior managers do not understand the potential that social networking offers both for employees and customers. This disconnect is a real problem, but with software vendors diving into social networking, hopefully the value will come to light for disbelievers.
**Bonus points for anyone who can tell me in what movie the phrase “get socialized” is referenced.
**Speaking of social apps, if you haven’t checked out Josh Weinberger’s tweeting from OpenWorld, you must do so. The man doesn’t eat. He doesn’t sleep. He tweets.
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