Small Businesses Worry About MS Anti-Phishing

prostoalex writes "Ever get that warm feeling of safety, when the anti-phishing toolbar on Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 turns green, telling you it's safe to shop on the site you're visiting? Well, you probably don't, but the millions of Internet users who will soon be running IE7 probably will be paying attention to the anti-phishing warnings. WSJ.com is reporting on how Microsoft is making it tough for small businesses to assure they're treated properly by the anti-phishing algorithm." From the article: "[S]ole proprietorships, general partnerships and individuals won't be eligible for the new, stricter security certificates that Microsoft requires to display the color. There are about 20.6 million sole proprietorships and general partnerships in the U.S... though it isn't clear how many are engaged in e-commerce... 'Are people going to trust the green more than white? Yes, they will,' says Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner Inc. and an expert on online payments and fraud. 'All the business is going to go to the greens, it's kind of obvious.'"

Comments

Re:Really?

[mwvdlee]

The only people this can significantly hurt are business which were doomed to fail in anycase, and scammers.

I have a small business, legally registered, which is a sole proprietorship. Even though my business is legal and even though I'm personally legally responsible for the business I cannot get this green bar.

I can pay the money for it (even though this starts to smell like a scam itself; pay the money for the certificate or you'll be blacklisted) and would if I could, but simply because they haven't defined rules to verify my type of business (which would be easy; My business is registered, has a clean tax-record and I can provide any identification they'd need).

So now MY business will not get on the whitelist because THEY fail to even set the rules by which I could get on the whitelist.

I seriously think MS should hold out on displaying the bars until sufficient rules are in place that allow all legal businesses equal recognition as such.