Explaining EV SSL Certificates to Customers

After spending the extra money and going through the extra validation to get an EV SSL certificate, how do you make the most of it ? How do you explain the meaning of EV SSL Certificates to customers? VeriSign has provided a few different explanations that you can use to explain to customers what EV SSL Certificates are and how to recognize them:

25 Word Explanation

You are visiting a Web page secured with Extended Validation (EV) SSL, the highest standard in the Internet security industry for Web site identity authentication.

50 Word Explanation

We use Extended Validation (EV) SSL, the highest standard in the Internet security industry for Web site authentication, to secure your online transaction with us. EV SSL signifies that our organization has passed a rigorous identity authentication process. The EV SSL Certificate triggers your browser address to display https:// and if you use a browser released in 2007 or later (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 7) your address bar will turn a noticeable green color.

120 Word Explanation

We use Extended Validation (EV) SSL, the highest standard in the Internet security industry for Web site authentication, to secure your online transaction with us. EV SSL signifies that our organization has passed a rigorous identity authentication process. The EV SSL Certificate will trigger your browser address to display https:// and if you use a browser released in 2007 or later (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 7) your address bar will turn a noticeable green color. To the right of the address bar, a field will display the name of the organization that owns this Web site and this field will toggle to display VeriSign, the certificate authority that issued this SSL Certificate. When you see your address bar turn green, simply look to the right to see that the owner of this Web site is the organization you intended to visit.

Full Page Explanation

This Web site is secured with an Extended Validation SSL Certificate.

Consider replacing this green bar screen image with one containing your Web URL.

What does this mean?

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificates are the standard method used on the Internet to secure communications between Web users and Web sites. This technology both authenticates the identity of a Web site and encrypts communications between the user and the Web site.

Extended Validation SSL is a new type of SSL Certificate. A consortium of Internet security experts (Certificate Authority/Browser Forum) including VeriSign created Extended Validation (EV) SSL to combat the growing epidemic of fraudulent Web activity known as phishing. Phishing is a technique used by criminals on the Web to trick Web users into revealing sensitive personal and financial information to a counterfeit Web site. These phishing sites look like a familiar Web site but they are only a fraudulent front for criminal activity. It can be very difficult to differentiate a phishing Web site from the legitimate Web site. This threat has made it more important than ever for Web sites to be authenticated as genuine by a trusted third party before users share information with them.

For over a decade SSL Certificates have served to authenticate Web sites, however not all SSL Certificates provide the same level of authentication. Some highly authenticate a site and some merely verify that the organization requesting the certificate has the right to use their stated Internet domain address. EV SSL Certificates represent the highest standard for authentication. They require that every Web site secured with EV SSL pass a standardized process for rigorously verifying the legitimacy of the organization responsible for that Web site.

We use Extended Validation (EV) SSL to secure your online transaction with us because we take your online security very seriously. EV SSL signifies that our organization has passed the strict EV identity authentication process. Our EV SSL Certificate will trigger your browser address bar to display https:// and if you use a browser released in 2007 or later (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 7) your address bar will turn a noticeable green color. To the right of the address bar, a field will display the name of the organization that owns this Web site and this field will toggle to display VeriSign, the industry-leading certificate authority that issued this SSL Certificate. When you see your address bar turn green, simply look to the right to see that the owner of this Web site is the organization you intended to visit.

Explain the Significance of Extended Validation to Your Web Site Visitors - [VeriSign]

Originally posted on Sun Dec 30, 2007