COMODO’S NEW HACKERPROOF SERVICE REVOLUTIONIZES E-MERCHANT’S ABILITY TO ESTABLISH SITE CREDIBILITY IMPROVING SITE CONVERSION AND SALES

E-Merchants can leverage Comodo’s high brand recognition to drive higher visitor conversion with a free ROI-based program offering

Jersey City, NJ, December 12, 2007 — According to a study conducted by Harris Polls in May of 2006, consumers do not have a high level of trust in E-Commerce sites. In the study, Harris measured “levels of trust” and found that only 5% of consumers have “a great deal” of trust in eTailers and over 50% of consumers do not trust eTailers at all or trust them very little. To address this growing trust gap, Comodo, a leading Certification Authority, today announced the launch of Comodo HackerProof, a new E-Merchant service that drives visitor conversion by certifying that the site has been tested and meets Comodo’s stringent security standards. Sites passing Comodo’s vulnerability scans and are certified to be free of security gaps can display the HackerProof trust mark. The HackerProof trust mark is highly valued by E-Merchants as an endorsement of the site’s credibility because over 100 million people associate the Comodo brand with security, making Comodo’s brand credibility one of the highest among Vulnerability Scanning providers. As proof of the Comodo brand’s ability to drive conversion, Comodo offers this advanced service for free until the E-Merchant sees at least a 5% increase in site conversion rates thus providing a compelling ROI (return on investment) and business case for this implementation of this solution.

The business goal of all E-Merchants is to increase online conversion of site traffic with brand credibility recognized as one of the most important factors driving this dynamic. According to the Association for Consumer Research, brand credibility, “…requires that consumers perceive that the brand have the ability (i.e., expertise) and willingness (i.e., trustworthiness) to continuously deliver what has been promised …” It can be a challenge for E-Merchants to communicate this level of brand credibility to site visitors. Comodo HackerProof service was specifically designed to give E-Merchants the tools to ease consumer’s fears and establish a high level of brand credibility through a technologically advanced trust mark that provides:

• a simplified mechanism for a site visitor to obtain site business credentials
• proof of a site’s security safety against hackers
• powerful “endorsement” of the site’s credibility through association with Comodo – a highly recognized trust brand

The technology behind the HackerProof Trust Mark.

Comodo delivers significant brand credibility to a site because site credentials are visible and verifiable throughout the customer’s interaction with exclusive, patent-pending technologies including:

• Exclusive “fixed position” technology allows the trust mark to be a constant presence on the site to act as a reminder to the site visitor that the site is safe to transact on. This capability is unlike any other site seal that “disappears” once the site visitor scrolls down on the page.
• Access to full trust credentials in one easy roll over action without requiring the site visitor to get diverted to another site to verify credential information. This provides on site reassurance to the visitor that helps drive trust and ultimately conversion.
• Patent-pending “Tamper proof” verification capabilities that site visitors can use to verify the authenticity of the trust mark. Using the free plugin (VerificationEngine), site visitors can immediately distinguish authentic trust marks from ones that have been pasted and put on a site fraudulently. As a result, site visitors can trust that the HackerProof trust mark is authentic further increasing visitors’ trust in the site.

“Increasing online security threats continue to strain the Internet’s growth as consumers become more cautious in their online behavior. With the introduction of the HackerProof service, E-Merchants have a powerful new tool to combat these growing concerns.” said Melih Abdulhayoglu, CEO and Chief Security Architect of Comodo. “Comodo developed this advanced trust mark technology to provide a better user experience with an interaction that allows consumers a simple and reliable way to verify a company’s trust credentials. This in turn will increase a site’s online conversion rates – the most important business driver in the market today.”

Comodo’s confidence in this breakthrough trust mark is such that Comodo will provide a risk free way for E-Merchants to “test drive” this technology. Comodo HackerProof comes free of charge until A/B testing results prove that pages served with the HackerProof trust mark realize an increase in conversion rates of at least 5% over pages served without the HackerProof trust mark. In this A/B testing mode, E-Merchants can easily assess the incremental value of the HackerProof trust mark.

For more information on the HackerProof trust mark and other Comodo technologies, please visit Comodo.com/hackerproof/index.html.

About Comodo

The Comodo companies provide the infrastructure that is essential in enabling e-merchants, other Internet-connected companies, software companies, and individual consumers to interact and conduct business via the Internet safely and securely. The Comodo companies offer PKI SSL, Code Signing, Content Verification and Email Certificate; award winning PC Security software; Vulnerability Scanning services for PCI Compliance; secure e-mail and fax services.

Continual innovation, a core competence in PKI, and a commitment to reversing the growth of Internet-crime distinguish the Comodo companies as vital players in the Internet’s ongoing development. Comodo secures and authenticates online transactions and communications for over 200,000 business customers and 3,000,000 users of our desktop security products.

For additional information on Comodo – Creating Trust Online® visit Comodo.com

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Comodo
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