Verisign White Paper Sample

Introduction

Gaining the trust of online customers is vital for the success of any company that requires sensitive data to be provided over the Web. In e-commerce, consumers are concerned about identity theft and are therefore justifiably leery of providing untrusted sources with their personal information, especially their credit card numbers to pay for transactions. Other types of online businesses require different but equally sensitive information. People are reluctant to provide their social security numbers, passwords, health and other confidential personal information, or sometimes even just name, address, and phone number. Perhaps the information will be intercepted in transit,they fear, or perhaps the destination itself is manned by imposters with ill intent.

The result for many wary consumers is an abandoned transaction. In fact, TNS Research reported in 2006 that 70% of online shoppers have abandoned a purchase because of security concerns. Others may overcome their fears enough to make small purchases but limit the size of their transactions for fear the money they spend will be pocketed and nothing delivered in return.

Such consumer fears are very well founded. In 2007, an estimated $3.6 billion in online revenues was lost to online fraud—up more than 16% from 2006.1 The total number of unique phishing reports submitted to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) in January 2008 was 29,284, an increase of nearly 9% from the previous month.....