Branded Security
For quite some time, Ian Grigg has been calling for security branding for certificate authorities. When making a reservation for a Joie de Vivre hotel, I got the attached Javascript pop-up. (You reach it before the providing a credit card number.)
I am FORCED to ask, HOWEVER , what the average consumer is supposed to make of this? (“I can make a hat, and a boat…”) Who is this VERISIGN, and why might I care?
The word Verisign isn’t a link. It’s not strongly tied to what I’m seeing. (Except for the small matter of legality, I could make this site pop up that exact same dialog box.) It is eminently forgeable, there’s no URL, there’s nothing graphical.
Nevertheless, it probably pre-sages such dialog boxes popping up next to the colored URL bar, and confusing the message they’re trying to send.
On the off chance that trackbacks still clag… btw, what is “I can make a hat, and a boat…” in reference to?
Ahh.. but can he make a pterodactyl? A brooch?
(The reference is to a quotation from a character in the movie “Airplane!“, played by Stephen Stucker.)
The first link is a trailer for the movie, and contains the quotation.
How unfortunate that ‘http://reservations.ihotelier.com’ is considered ‘secure’ at that.