According to a study conducted by Harris Polls in May 2006, consumers do not have a high level of trust in ecommerce sites. In the study, Harris measured "levels of trust" and found that only 5 percent of consumers have "a great deal" of trust in etailers and over 50 percent of consumers do not trust etailers at all or trust them very little.

To address this growing trust gap, Comodo, a leading Certification Authority, has announced the launch of Comodo HackerProof, a new eMerchant 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 will be highly valued by emerchants as an endorsement of the site's credibility, says Comodo, because more than 100 million people associate the Comodo brand with security. Comodo's brand credibility is one of the highest among vulnerability scanning providers, according to the company. As proof of the Comodo brand’s ability to drive conversion, Comodo is offering its advanced service for free until the emerchant sees at least a 5 percent increase in site conversion rates. Comodo hopes this will  provide a compelling return on investment and business case for the implementation of its solution.

The business goal of emerchants is to increase online conversion of site traffic. Brand credibility is 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 emerchants to communicate this level of brand credibility to site visitors. Comodo HackerProof service was specifically designed to give emerchants the tools to ease consumers' 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

According to Comodo, the company 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 that allows the trust mark to be a constant presence on the site acting as a reminder to the visitor that the site is safe for transactions. The capability is unlike any other site seal that "disappears" once the site visitor scrolls down on the page, notes Comodo.
• *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, thereby 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, emerchants have a powerful new tool to combat these growing concerns," says 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 is providing a risk free way for emerchants 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 percent over pages served without the HackerProof trust mark. In this A/B testing mode, emerchants 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 http://www.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 certificates; award winning PC security software; vulnerability scanning services for PCI compliance; secure email 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 more than 200,000 business customers and 3 million users of its desktop security products. For additional information on Comodo--Creating Trust Online, visit http://www.comodo.com.