If you’re a bank, you ABSOLUTELY NEED to have an Extended Validation SSL. Not because anyone says you have to, but because it’s good business. Look at this file; do you want to have to deal with that? Is it worth the consumer backlash you’ll inevitably face? Banks are the #1 target of phishing attacks; an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

If you are engaged in E-Commerce, you SHOULD have an Extended Validation SSL. EVERY E-Commerce client we’ve dealt with that has deployed an Extended Validation SSL has seen an increases in conversion rates and a decrease in shopping cart abandonment rates. Moving to the Extended Validation SSL is a simple and cost effective way to increase the efficiencies of your business. You’re paying good money to get people to your site; don’t let them decide against buying something because they got spooked. Look at the Extended Validation SSL as an investment or a way to differentiate yourself. Pretty much every site has a regular SSL..it’s a necessary evil, a sunk cost if you will. If you don’t have one, site visitors will get an error message-which you can’t afford. Other than that it does nothing FOR you. Extended Validation SSL will make you stand out, and I guarantee it will wind up paying paying for itself and then some.

Outside of these two groups, the decision to move toward an Extended Validation SSL is not cut and dry. There is no “one size fits all” answer, but this much we know-phishing attacks have increased 50% in less than a year. Consider Extended Validation SSL if you want to:

• Protect your customer’s accounts from phishing.  Phishers want account login details, which means any company providing customers with an account / login is a potential phishing target. Extended Validation SSL helps protect your customers at the point of logging in by assuring them they’re on the real site and not a phishing site.

• Protect your brand from copy cat sites.  Any online brand name that has value can benefit from Extended Validation SSL. For centuries people have fallen victim to fraudsters and con artists pretending to be someone or something they are not. This “art” has now found its way online where a copy cat site can claim to be a brand they are not.

In January 2007, Tec-Ed researched usage and attitudes of 384 online shoppers and measured their responses to Web sites with and without green bars:

• 100% of participants notice whether or not a site shows the green EV bar
• 93% of participants prefer to shop on sites that show the green bar
• 97% are likely to share their credit card information on sites with the green EV bar, as opposed to only 63% with non-EV sites
• 77% of participants report that they would hesitate to shop at a site that previously showed the green EV bar and no longer does so.