This Holiday, A Third of UK's Popular Retailers Lack Best-Practice Website Security
Sectigo studied the web security of 25 popular UK retailers to see how each organization helps protect their consumers by maximising trust in online shopping. For the first in its Secure Impressions studies, we looked for the presence of SSL certificates; verifications provided by a Certificate Authority, which confirm that a website is authentic and legitimate.
It’s the time of year when shoppers flock to storefronts to take advantage of great deals in time for the holidays. But shoppers are not the only ones seeking opportunities. Scammers are also aware of the frenzied nature that ensues for Black Friday shopping – and websites lacking SSL certificates can open the door for phishing and leave shoppers feeling unsure about the authenticity of the websites they’re visiting.
Sectigo, the world’s largest commercial Certificate Authority, studied the web security of 25 major UK retailers to see how each helps protect their shoppers by maximising trust in online shopping.
For the first in its Secure Impressions series of studies, Sectigo looked for the presence of SSL certificates; verifications provided by a Certificate Authority, which confirm that a website is authentic and legitimate. Extended Validation (EV) SSL, indicated by a company-branded address bar, helps to increase site transactions and protects users against phishing, serving as a best-practice security measure for retailers online.
Surprisingly, only 9 out of the 25 UK retailers analysed provide best-practice assurance to customers of the authenticity of the merchants’ websites.
Author’s note: This study was conducted in November 2018 and post-dated to the Sectigo blog in June 2019 as part of the Sectigo Secure Impressions Series.