GlobalSign recognized for demonstrating leadership in brand protection, online security, and privacy best practices

Boston, MA– June 5, 2013 – GlobalSign today announced it has been named to the Online Trust Alliance (OTA) 2013 Online Trust Honor Roll for demonstrating exceptional data protection, privacy and security in an effort to better protect their customers and brand from the increased threats of cybercriminals.

OTA, a nonprofit organization that works collaboratively with industry leaders to enhance online trust, completed comprehensive audits analyzing more than 750 domains and privacy policies, approximately 10,000 web pages and more than 500 million emails for this report. The composite analysis included over a dozen attributes focusing on 1) site & server security, 2) domain, brand, email and consumer protection, and 3) privacy policy and practices. In addition to the in-depth analysis of their websites, Domain Name Systems (DNS), outbound emails, and public records were analyzed for recent data breach incidents and FTC settlements. Key sectors audited include the Internet Retailer 500, FDIC 100, Top 50 Social Sites as well as OTA members.

“Consumers are trading billions of pieces of personal data in exchange for desired services. They rely on the integrity of the businesses collecting and storing this information to protect them,” said Craig Spiezle, president and executive director of the Online Trust Alliance. “We are very pleased with the voluntary level of adoption many consumer-facing websites implemented this year that went above and beyond baseline compliance.”

“GlobalSign is honored to be recognized for our leadership and security solutions by such a respected organization as OTA for the third year,” said Steve Waite, CEO GlobalSign Americas . “As a company we strive to help drive industry best practices so that organizations of all sizes may better protect themselves from the ever-evolving advanced persistent threats that have become all too common in today’s security landscape. We recently introduced our SSL Configuration Checker to help sites identify the strengths and weaknesses of their SSL configuration and learn the steps that must be taken to remediate any issues, allowing them to better secure their network.”

Nearly a third of the companies reviewed made the Honor Roll, including GlobalSign. The report indicates that company size and/or sales are not true measures of the level of security and privacy a company implements. “All companies are equally evaluated by the same criterion regardless of size. We have seen large e-retailers with significant sales fail to make the Honor Roll; conversely we have seen small to mid-size companies taking top grades,” said Spiezle.

Started in 2005 as an effort to drive adoption of best practices, the objectives of the Honor Roll are to 1) recognize leadership and commitment to best practices which aid in the protection of online trust and confidence in online services, 2) Enable businesses to enhance their security, data protection and privacy practices, 3) Move from compliance to stewardship, demonstrating support of meaningful self-regulation, and 4) Promote security & privacy as part of a company’s brand promise and value proposition.

Being named to the 2013 Honor Roll is a significant achievement considering the large number of companies that received failing marks for inadequate domain and consumer protection (22%), insecure websites (11%), and inadequate privacy policies or data collection practices (35%).

“Security challenges continue to grow in complexity with enterprise adoption of the cloud and the proliferation of BYOD,” said Waite. “As a result, businesses are struggling to incorporate industry best practices and implement the latest security solutions that protect their brand, customers and reputations. We admire OTA’s work in advancing online trust through education and the advancement of best security practices, promoting a safer Internet for organizations and end users alike.”