E*TRADE Australia Turns to VeriSign So Customers Can Invest Online with Confidence

E*TRADE Australia Turns to VeriSign

So Customers Can Invest Online with Confidence

Australian Financial Institution Creates Safer Online Trading

by Deploying Extended Validation SSL Certificates from VeriSign

Sydney, Australia - September 11, 2007 – At a time when phishing and online fraud is shaking the confidence of consumers worldwide, E*TRADE Australia is enabling more than 325,000 of its customers to trade online with increased assurance that their transactions are safe from the reach of identity thieves.

By relying on advanced security technology from VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), the leading provider of digital infrastructure for the networked world, E*TRADE Australia helps provide online retail customers with instantly recognisable confirmation that they have reached genuine E*TRADE Web pages, instead of counterfeit sites designed by e-criminals to capture user information. Such imposter sites can surreptitiously gather sensitive personal information, such as passwords and user names.

E*TRADE Australia is the latest company to adopt VeriSign Extended Validation (EV) Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificates, which clearly call out a Web site’s authenticated organisational identity for consumers using high-security Web browsers, such as Internet Explorer 7. When VeriSign’s EV Certificates interact with the browser, users can spot important visual cues, including an address bar highlighted in green.

“We’re constantly looking for ways to increase customer confidence in our service,” said Stephen Pauley, network operations manager for E*TRADE Australia. “VeriSign gives us an easily identifiable way for our customers to know their transactions are secure, and that they’re on the actual E*TRADE site. We’re educating our client base to look for the VeriSign EV Certificate as the new standard for e-commerce security. They’ll know that when the bar is green, the site is clean.”

As the most respected and trusted SSL authority on the Web, VeriSign is the EV SSL Certificate provider of choice for more than 1,300 Internet domains, representing more than 75 percent of the entire EV SSL Certificate market worldwide. In fact, 93 percent of the Fortune 500 – and the world’s 40 largest banks – rely on some form of VeriSign SSL Certificate authentication.

“Every day, E*TRADE Australia makes a commitment to its customers that it will provide a secure and  authenticated destination for online trading, and VeriSign is proud to be a vital part of that commitment,” said Tim Callan, director of SSL marketing at VeriSign. “A VeriSign EV SSL Certificate signals to consumers that they have reached a trusted site for online transactions, and this in turn helps build loyal and lasting customer relationships for companies like E*TRADE.”

About VeriSign  

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), operates digital infrastructure services that enable and protect billions of interactions every day across the world’s voice, video and data networks. Additional news and information about the company is available at www.verisign.com.au

©2007 VeriSign, Inc. All rights reserved. VeriSign, the VeriSign logo, the checkmark circle, and other trademarks, service marks, and designs are registered or unregistered trademarks of VeriSign, Inc., and its subsidiaries in the United States and in foreign countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.