TrustedSite Replaces McAfee SECURE Seal on Shopping Sites

• Certified Secure - addresses visitor concerns about malware, viruses, and phishing.
• Verified Business - shows your site is a reliable business that visitors can contact.
• Issue-Free Orders - shows your business consistently delivers outstanding service.
• Trusted Reviews - shows your Trustpilot, ResellerRatings or Verified Reviews star rating on your TrustedSite certification modal and page.
• Data Protection - addresses concerns about data protection and phishing by showing visitors their information is secure with SSL encryption.
• Shopper Identity Protection - shows you care about identity theft prevention by offering qualified customers $100,000 Shopper Identity Protection.
• Spam-Free - alleviates concerns about email spam to collect more registrations.

History of the TrustedSite Certification and Seal

Tim Dowling, TrustedSite CEO, provided some context on the history and transition:

Nearly 20 years ago, a small company called ScanAlert developed one of the world's first commercial website and web application vulnerability scanners looking at website's from the attacker's point-of-view. This dedicated team of security researchers and developers gave online businesses the ability to test the security of their applications automatically by mimicking the methods of an attacker.

It was fantastic for website developers to be able to better find security flaws and fix them before a breach could happen, but there was another issue. Consumers just getting accustomed to online shopping had no way to know which sites might be more risky than others. So ScanAlert took their technology (and their patents) and gave it an additional job: let sites that have proven themselves to be more secure show that to their visitors.

And with that they introduced the HackerSafe trustmark. When security teams gave it to their marketers, those marketers started seeing higher conversion rates which meant more sales. That led more and more businesses to start testing trust on their websites and displaying the HackerSafe trustmark.

I was at McAfee at this point in time, leading the division focused on web security, and we certainly took notice. So in 2008, we acquired ScanAlert and their HackerSafe technology, and rebranded HackerSafe as the McAfee SECURE service. The new trustmark quickly became one of the most familiar and ubiquitous symbols of trust on the internet.

Dowling and others later spun off operation of McAfee SECURE to a dedicated company, which became TrustedSite. TrustedSite has been improving and expanding its trustmark system ever since. TrustedSite seals now appear on more than 100,000 websites in 19 different languages.

What's the appeal of trustmarks like TrustedSite's? Studies have shown that such assurances about privacy and security can have a dramatic impact on sales.

And that shouldn't change with the retirement of McAfee SECURE.