Web User Experience Blog

Imagine being able to use your iPhone to protect and authenticate your identity online. Well, now you can - cool! VeriSign today announced the launch of VIP Access for Mobile, a FREE downloadable app on the Apple App Store which generates a one-time password to access participating sites. In addition to your username and password, the iPhone application will generate a six-digit security code which dynamically changes every 30 seconds and which you input as your second factor of authentication when signing into your online accounts. Initially, a 'Credential ID' specific to your iPhone is generated and SMS text-messaged to that phone number for verification. This credential is only entered when you first register for the network's sites such as Paypal, eBay, AOL, or Geico.

Similar pilot tests are also being conducted on other mobile devices such as the Blackberry in the U.S. and India.

Here's a Demo:

Posted by Reshma Kumar at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As part of the Security Bloggers Meet-Up at the RSA Conference, the Social Security Awards will recognize the best blogs in the security industry. Two VeriSign bloggers are in the running - Tim Callan's SSL Blog for 'Best Corporate Security Blog' and Branden Williams' Security Convergence Blog for 'Most Entertaining Security Blog'.

If you would like to vote for these blogs, submit your vote by March 31!

Posted by Reshma Kumar at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Internet Archive, the Wayback Machine, was recently in the news for the opening of a new data center to house its repository of archived Web sites. Wayback reportedly has three petabytes of archived sites in its massive database of 85 million sites dating back to 1996. The site allows you to go back in time to see what sites looked like at a snapshot in time. It is akin to looking at old, embarrassing photos of yourself. I decided to take this virtual stroll down memory lane in light of our upcoming homepage redesign and here is we looked in the early years. Note: some of the images on the pages are missing.

JUNE 1997: The Formative Years



FEBRUARY 2004: The Teenage Years

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The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has found himself a victim of Internet fraud. Having invented the Internet twenty years ago with the noble intent of linking documents together, the Web has evolved and also become a haven for fraud. Sir Tim, who purchased a Christmas present from a Website which never arrived, called the phone number on the site only to discover that the number was not valid. As he puts it "The worst thing that has happened to me was when I tried to buy a Christmas present from a company that looked like a bona fide company on the internet and then actually they were a completely fake company. I think I am yet to get the money back, but it wasn't a lot."

Clearly, no one is immune. As we surf the Web daily and transact on sites, we mostly take it for granted that the sites we are on are legitimate and trustworthy. We might look for trust marks like the Better Business Bureau Online, the VeriSign Secured Seal, and Truste as indicators of authenticity and security but we mostly assume positive intent. Unfortunately, this is when we can fall victim to cyber crime.

According to the Telegraph:

Sir Tim called on the authorities to put as much effort into fighting cyber crime as they do into conventional crime.

Sir Tim said he felt that online crime needed to be enforced as rigorously as crime in the real world, within international agreements to help prevent internet criminals escaping prosecution by hiding in countries outside the jurisdiction of the law where their victims live.

He said: "There have been many positive things about the web, but there are also some nasty things out there too. You can find out how to cure diseases, but you can also find out how to make bombs.

"Sometimes we need new laws, but in other cases we need to realise that old laws can still be applied to the web.

"We need to tackle issues of enforcement instead, as the laws on fraud, for example, already exist but is hard to find and catch the people responsible."

Posted by Reshma Kumar at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The economy is hitting businesses hard all round and certainly no one is immune. However, there are some companies which are faring better than others even in the current harsh economic climate. Ranked as one of the ten IT vendors defying the gloom and doom is none other than VeriSign.

Even in tough economics times, internet security is still critical. In fact, some might argue it's even more so important given that crime rates have been known to increase in periods of economic downturn. Online identity theft and fraud are on the rise and undertaking precautionary measures to safeguard online identity is key. Whether it's outfitting a Website with an SSL certificate for encrypting transactions or a Secured Seal trust mark or a mechanism for verifying a site's authenticity, these security measures bolster trust and confidence. As a result, online businesses stand to benefit by way of possible increased revenues.

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Twenty years ago this month in March 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web by following his dream of a better, easier way to communicate via computers on a global scale. And what an invention it was! The initial project, dubbed ENQUIRE referred to 'Enquire Within Upon Everything', a book Berners-Lee recalled from his childhood. Berners-Lee created a browser-editor with the goal of developing a tool to make the Web a creative space to share and edit information and build a common hypertext. Names considered for this browser included 'The Mine of Information' and 'The Information Mesh' and eventually decided on the WorldWideWeb in May 1990. The world's first web site went live in 1991. A copy of the original first webpage created by Berners-Lee can be found here.

In a recent interview with a co-author of Berners-Lee, it was said that to Tim "the whole point of the Web, to him, was not to just see information but to publish it, too. This didn't really happen until blogs emerged, followed by sites like Facebook , where people can easily post content. And, in answer to what the future holds for the Web, " It's hard to implement controls on the Web--because it was created in the ethos of the Internet--in that it's totally open. But for Tim, confronting issues like privacy and protection of intellectual property is not a matter of a technical fix. First, you need a social fix. If the Web is open to good people, it's open to bad people, too. The way you deal with security and other problems on the Web is the same way you deal with it in society: You need laws and social conventions that guide people's behavior. Once those are developed, then the technical ways to implement them can be created."

Posted by Reshma Kumar at 8:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As you navigate our VeriSign Website, you will notice that we are migrating away from our previous site design to a newer design. The previous site layout was narrower, left aligned, had a two-columnar page layout, and the local navigation was situated in the right channel.

In the redesign, we saw opportunities to open the site up, update the look and feel (LAF), and define the content areas more clearly. You'll notice from the new layout that we have increased the site width and centered it to better optimize the screen real estate. The header houses our logo, courtesy navigational links at the top right, search utility, and global navigation across the top in the VeriSign cranberry hue. The pages are a three-columnar format with clearly defined and traditional left navigation and right marketing channels. In the main content area, we have breadcrumb links for orientation, page titles, and a utlity navigation for bookmarking, emailing, and printing strategically positioned for contextual relevance.

We are also utilizing radial edged corners for a softer effect, gradients, and larger font sizes. We have updated the color palette to a softer and cooler look and incorporated more 3-D icons and imagery giving it a more Web 2.0-esque LAF. The finished effect is a cleaner, clearer, and more easily navigable design. Let us know how it works for you.

AFTER:

BEFORE:

Posted by Reshma Kumar at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As of the two-year anniversary of the launch of the VeriSign Extended Validation SSL Certificate, there are now more than 11,000 such certificates deployed on Websites around the world including the likes of PayPal, eBay, Travelocity and Schwab. The Extended Validation certificate lights up the Website address bar 'green' and displays the name of the site operator to verify the site authenticity to visitors. Only users with current versions of Web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, and Opera will see the green address bar if a site has this certificate. This helps to protect users from fraudulent sites which may arise as a result of phishing, spoofing, and other scams. The Extended Validation certificate is a step-up from the standard SSL Certificate.

Posted by Reshma Kumar at 8:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)