[Politech] Problems with VeriSign's new Flash-based "Trust Mark" seal

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Tue Nov 11 2003 - 06:23:43 PST

  • Next message: Declan McCullagh: "[Politech] Concern over Multiple Jurisdictional Network Organization [priv]"

    ---
    
    Reply-To: <ray@private>
    From: "Ray Everett-Church" <ray@private>
    To: "'Declan McCullagh'" <declan@private>, <dave@private>
    Subject: More VeriSign problems
    
    X-UIDL: 968c9b776221209877520c929468a9c2
    
    According to http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/33779.html, on November
    4:
    
     > VeriSign today unveiled a redesign of its ubiquitous
     > Trust Mark seal symbol. Instead of a static GIF image,
     > the new Trust Mark features a Flash-based animated
     > design to make it more recognizable online.
     >
     > By clicking on the new VeriSign Trust Mark, consumers
     > can verify a business's legal name, determine the
     > validity period for the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
     > certificate, and view their place of incorporation.
     >
     > Mike Foley, vice president of VeriSign Security
     > Services, explained that the underlying technology
     > behind the design had changed so that this information
     > could be validated in real time - unlike earlier
     > versions of the seal where information wasn't served
     > dynamically. This also means that VeriSign can strip
     > off the revamped Trust Mark seal from a site when a
     > digital certificate expires, he added.
     >
     > The newly designed VeriSign Trust Mark is positioned
     > as a way for VeriSign's customers to better communicate
     > the authenticity of their site to potential consumers
     > online.
    
    Unfortunately (but not surprisingly) they implemented it very poorly. My
    partner, a Flash designer and developer, analyzed their implementation and
    found numerous problems, including several ways in which it can be trivially
    spoofed. His analysis, with a live demonstration, appears at:
    http://www.infinitumdesign.com/verisign.html (Flash 6 required).
    
    Regards,
    -Ray
    _______________________________________________
    Politech mailing list
    Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
    Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Nov 11 2003 - 06:51:18 PST