People know
to look for the gold padlock when transacting online. E-commerce stores know
they need an SSL certificate to get the gold padlock. It’s something consumers
have been told numerous times whether it was from a pre-holiday news special
about protecting yourself online or from the family member that thinks they
know everything about technology.
The gold
standard for e-commerce has gone green.
have probably seen the green address bar when you are shopping at some of the
largest internet retailers out there. The green address bar only shows up when
the website has an Extended Validation (EV) certificate. This is the highest
level of identity assurance that can be given to visitors. This interactive and
noticeable visual indicator is an overlooked way to immediately improve
customer confidence and reduce shopping cart abandonment.
What about
the gold padlock?
validation process (what the Certification Authority (CA) does in order to
check out that the entity asking for the certificate truly is who they say they
are) varies between vendors for different certificate types. SSL Certificates
were all given the exact same visual indicator, the gold padlock, regardless of
the level of validation. Most users couldn’t differentiate between a
certificate issued where only the domain was checked versus a certificate where
the entire organization was verified against third party sources. This causes
confusion as the gold padlock represents a variable level of website identity
assurance.
To combat
this confusion, Comodo founded the CA/B forum. The forum comprised all of the
largest Certificate Authorities and major browsers who vowed to work together
to create the first true standard for issuing certificates. The results of
their work are the new Extended Validation standards for Certificates. These
new high-level standards have become the backbone of trust and validation.
Along with
the standards, the CA/B forum created a new visual indicator, the green address
bar, to convey this trust. Just like the gold padlock was pushed by the media,
the green address bar picks up where it left off. The green address bar tells
users that the site has met the highest validation standards available. Thanks
to the green address bar, people who already know to look for a visual
indicator can now rely on the meaning behind it.
