It's saleman mumbo jumbo language. It means that if you spend more money
with them, customers who are wildly informed about the difference between
"Thawte" "Verisign" "GeoTrust" or whoever (sarcasm) will feel better.
There's also the part where they say if you spin around counter clockwise and
kick your ruby slippers, you'll end up back in Kansas. You'll have to read
the fine print for that part.
Frankly the cert business is little more than an expensive scam. Why
shouldn't any "trusted 3rd party" be able to issue a cert? The merchant's
bank for example for an ecommerce site. Or maybe the BBB. Or alternatively
why should it not be centered around the host who handles and is really the
one who has ultimate access and in who's trust the merchant or other hosted
client has to trust with any security sensitive information? And then it is
worth $100-900 a year for this? If anyone should be raking in the bucks for
security it should be hosts and not Verisign, Thawte or even GeoTrust. What
they offer and what they allude to here and in their marketing is completely
illusory in terms of security. If you talk with the average hosted customer
they are under the impression that Verisign, Thawte or whoever enables their
SSL and provides the encryption/security as some sort of third party
application rather than what it really is - A Goodhousekeeping Seal of
Approval that pretty much anyone can get if they pay the money. In short,
it's extorsion and if you're in this business you've got to pay it to
someone.
In a message dated 9/9/2002 7:37:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ben@zygoat.ca
writes:
> Since I am someone who is not fully versed in the business of digital
> certificates, could you explain to me this apparent logical fallacy
> (quoting from the Thawte promotional blurb you posted):
>
> >One in three Web merchants say that the risk of fraud is their
> >biggest problem with online systems, according to a recent study
> >by Gartner. [...] When the
> >Thawte certificate or site seal is seen on a merchant's site,
> >customers can feel confident about doing business or transacting
> >with these merchants via the Internet.
>
> The paragraph begins by saying that the merchants fear the risk of fraud,
> then goes on to conclude that customers can feel safe when purchasing
> from a Thawte-endorsed merchant.
>
> What does that have to do with mitigating the merchant's risk of fraud?
>
> -ben
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