VeriSign Picked by Germany's Postbank

VeriSign, which sells Internet infrastructure services, reportedly said German multichannel bank Postbank, is "bringing trust and reassurance" to its iPhone-equipped mobile banking clients through VeriSign's (News - Alert) Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer Certificates.

Postbank has used VeriSign EV SSL since October of 2007 on its Web site. Evidently it's a happy customer, as it's now extended the service to its iBanking offering. Evidently it works for iPhone (News - Alert) users who access its iBanking service via Safari mobile browsers, according to company officials.

The reason for putting the VeriSign EV SSL brand name on an iBanking site, according to Postbank officials, is that it offers a "recognizable visual cue" that tells customers "they have reached a site whose authenticity has been verified by VeriSign." 

When Postbank customers reach the authentic iBanking site, their Safari browser's address bar turns green. Evidently this is the signal that aforesaid customers can "conduct their transactions with confidence and that all data transmitted to the site will be encrypted."

Why a green address bar? VeriSign officials said it's because identity thieves use phishing schemes to lure banking customers to look-alike Web pages, designed to steal account numbers, passwords and other sensitive information: "Even the most convincing fraudulent pages, however, cannot replicate the color of the browser's address bar."

 

"Postbank has offered mobile banking services to its iPhone-equipped clients since Apple (News - Alert) launched the iPhone in 2007," according to Michael Heinen, business unit manager of Direct Banking at Postbank.

Last month, VeriSign Messaging and Mobile Media, a division of VeriSign, was selected by Wilmington Trust to provide text banking services to its clients.

Clients can now access banking information, such as ATM and branch locations, personal account information, and recent transaction history via text message, enabling added convenience and access to real-time information via their mobile devices, according to VeriSign officials.