Let’s be honest for a
second – everybody loves their music across the globe. Whether you
are a fan of country, rock and roll, and hip-hop or are an Electric
Dance Music fan, the music industry truly captures our imagination
and our pocketbooks. Every day nearly 20 million people across the
globe download music or purchase music industry related merchandise
through traditionally reliable websites. However, product sales have
slowly decreased in recent months and many music executives struggle
to figure out why this is the case.
If you ask me – it has
nothing to do with the industry; it has everything to do with
mechanics and a significant lack of trust in the security of these
websites.
Back in April in 2012 a
company called Symantec, (which is the parent company who owns Norton
Anti-Virus and VeriSign SSL Security products) made the decision to
replace a highly regarded and world-wide trusted VeriSign Checkmark
of website safety with the less-reliable and less-trustworthy Norton
Secured Seal. The reasoning for this decision was to ‘increase the
awareness of the Norton Brand.
The problem is that their
decision impacted an entire industry and the confidence of shopping
online for a huge fan-base.
When Symantec made this
decision it instantly caused a panic in the online marketplace. How
was a consumer to feel comfortable about shopping on a website that
prior to April 2012 showcased that highly trustworthy VeriSign
Checkmark but now showed the cheap step-brother Norton’s Secured
Seal? People who shop online are not idiots; and as such they simply
chose not to purchase products on those websites who are ‘protected’
by Norton’s Seal (even if the actual software is VeriSign – there
is no way for the consumer to tell the difference now).
So do you need an example
of what I’m talking about? How about clicking this link to
http://www.myplaydirect.com?
This is one of Sony
Music’s recommended sources for downloading their artist’s songs
and buying merchandise. If you look in the upper left hand corner,
what important detail is missing from this page? If you answered that
there is ZERO SSL Certificate on the website to protect your privacy;
you’d be correct.
The problem is that this
website, like thousands of other in recent months was once protected
by VeriSign or Norton products. So why did this company change to no
SSL Certificate protection?
I don’t have the answer
to that question and it’s quite frankly scary knowing that a top
brand like Sony is recommending their customers purchase from a
website that has zero protection against hackers stealing the
identity and financial information of its customers.
This is pretty sad
indeed.
The decision of Symantec
to change the VeriSign Checkmark to Norton Secured Seal was a bad one
and truly impacts the day-to-day operation of thousands of internet
websites that are currently not protected internally. It also
prevents many music fans from buying quality music and merchandise
from these un-secured websites.
Until somebody steps up
and provides honest and trustworthy business dealings in the SSL
Certificate industry, online sales will continue to drop and an
entire industry could be in jeopardy.
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