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VeriSign to Protect Consumers, Web Sites From Fraud

New plan will cover losses up to $100,000.

By Sari Kalin, PCWorld   

The NetSure Protection Plan is one of several Digital ID enhancements VeriSign announced today that are aimed at consumers. These include support for secure e-mail, partnerships with popular Web directories that will let users list their Digital IDs, and a universal log-in feature that will work at Web sites that accept VeriSign%squots Digital IDs.

Digital IDs are used to authenticate participants in an electronic transaction. VeriSign%squots NetSure Protection Plan, which will cover consumers who use its Digital IDs up to a $50,000 loss and Web sites up to a $100,000 loss, will do much to boost electronic commerce, since fear of financial loss is the chief inhibitor to buying and selling over the Web, analysts said.

%dquotThe liability has to move away from the merchants and the consumers,%dquot said Chris Stevens, an electronic commerce analyst at Aberdeen Group in Boston. %dquotThat was what made credit cards so appealing and that is what will make online consumer transactions more appealing.%dquot

Under the plan, underwritten by United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company and included in the ID%squots cost, VeriSign Digital ID users will be protected against losses due to theft, impersonation, or corruption of their ID, or losses from being unable to use the ID, officials said. VeriSign will extend the NetSure Protection Plan to its Fortune 500 Private-Label customers later this year, officials said.

Protection levels vary for each class of ID, officials said. For Class 1 consumer IDs, users will be protected up to $1000; Class 2 consumer Ids will get $25,000 in protection; Class 3 consumer IDs, up to $50,000; and Class 3 organization IDs for Web sites will get up to $100,000 in protection.

Users can register for Class 1 and Class 2 IDs protected by NetSure in May at Verisigns Web site. Web site operators can register for Class 3 organization IDs in June. NetSure-protected Class 3 consumer Digital IDs will be available later this year.

Also today, VeriSign announced that its Class 1 and Class 2 Digital IDs will support the Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions protocol, a secure e-mail standard that is featured in early releases of Microsoft%squots Internet Explorer 4.0 and Netscape%squots Communicator. Through a partnership with three Web directory sites, Four11, InfoSpace, and Switchboard, VeriSign Digital ID users will be able to list their IDs and also find others%squot IDs.

Among other Class 1 Digital ID enhancements, VeriSign announced a universal Web site login feature, which enables VeriSign Digital ID holders to use their IDs--instead of user names and passwords--to log in to all sites that accept VeriSign IDs, officials said. The IDs are already accepted by Netscape%squots In-Box Direct service and InfoSpace%squots Internet Directory, and several sites plan to deploy IDs this quarter, including: CoolOffers, Four11, Internet Shopping Network, and the Motley Fool.