The Trust Foundation Understanding trust issues in the digital era.

Is seeing believing (and trusting)?

It's been reported that McAfee will be acquiring ScanAlert for about $51 million. A fledgling startup in 2001, ScanAlert has come a long way in just 6 years, with their Hacker Safe seal viewed over 6 billion times a month on over 200 million web pages across the Internet. The rapid and continued adoption of Hacker Safe by many prominent retailers and other sites, as well as ScanAlert's recent acquisition, signals that companies are recognizing that conveying their adherence to security standards is an important and meaningful differentiator and a contributor to their bottom line. Ultimately, ScanAlert's Hacker Safe seal helps to build trust with potential customers by demonstrating that the web site owner intends to provide the most secure experience possible and that therefore the customers' data is safe. Whether or not the ScanAlert Hacker Safe seal is actually protecting customers and site owners is another question. Does anyone know of any independent studies of the hit rate of hacker attempts and actual infiltrations on Hacker Safe web sites versus regular web sites?

I'm willing to bet that most consumers are unaware of the level of certification and the various standards involved in qualifying for "Hacker Safe" status. Assuming I'm betting correctly, that means the simple words "Hacker Safe" and the associated imagery and words that go along with a Hacker Safe seal are enough to build trust, which is an intriguing thought. The consumer is believing that the site is safer because someone says it is, in other words. The consumer does not actually know why it's safer or know if it is in fact safer than other sites, but opts to believe what he or she is told.