Within the December 2011 issue, one business category in focus was the financial world. The most successful websites in the financial sector build trust among their users by prominently displaying seals from reputable security vendors such as VeriSign and TRUSTe. What you'll find below is some information on the top vendors in the industry. If you're looking to send some strong trust signals to your users, let this list act as a starting point.
VeriSign - This is the largest and most widely-recognized trust sign on the Web and can be found on over 100,000 different websites. It offers a special "Seal-in-Search" feature that allows users the ability to see which signs are VeriSign secure from a SERP. The company was recently acquired by Symantec and will convert to Norton-authorized trust signs in April 2012. Pricing with VeriSign starts as low as $19 a month.
TRUSTe - Used by major companies like Facebook, the NFL, Verizon, Burger King and many more, TRUSTe is the other major player in the trust sign game. These seals fall under the category of "privacy seals," which means they focus on websites that need strong information privacy policies, and the sign guarantees that the sites being visited fully participate in the company's "privacy dispute resolution services." TRUSTe offers a variety of privacy options, including website privacy, mobile privacy, email privacy, download privacy and more.
eTrust - With eTrust, customers have different options for the seals they can purchase based on their site's needs. There is a more general privacy certification, which shows users that a website has passed the company's "stringent" privacy and data protection requirements, and there is also a Safe to Shop seal for ecommerce sites to let customers know that their important financial information is secure when making transactions on a site secured with eTrust.
GeoTrust - You have a choice of SSL Certificate options with GeoTrust that provide varying levels of authentication and offer different features, so that site owners can get the best protection for the best price. Prices rang from $149 all the way to $499, but the company also offers a free trial for customers looking to get started with SSL certification. GeoTrust provides a number of different solutions for retail, ISP and Web hosting, education, financial, healthcare, government and devlopers.
GlobalSign - GlobalSign, in addition to providing SSL Certificates, has three unique "Featured Solutions" that they offer. The first is OneClickSSL for Parallels Plesk that "rewrites SSL reselling for hosting companies," allowing customers to totally automate their SSL on Plesk. It also offers Managed SSL 2.0, with upgrades that include instant ordering and single account support for multiple companies. Finally, GlobalSign comes with HackAlert, a cloud-based malware detector that ensures that your site won't be distributing any hidden malware that would get it blacklisted by Google.
IdenTrust - Offering solutions for banks, corporations and goverments, IdenTrust promises customers "a single digital identity," and offers multiple uses for its service, including authentication, electronic signatures and encryption. Like other companies, IdenTrust offers a variety of different digital certificates and solutions for customers to choose from to get the most appropriate service for their companies.