Visit VeriSign (booth #1043) at Internet Retailer 2009 this week for your chance at winning several big contests. Of course, you will also want to get the scoop on why 90% of the 2008 Internet Retailer 500 trust VeriSign to secure their sites and how those leading online retailers are increasing transactions as a result.

Now about those contests...

Everybody wins - Take the Phish or No Phish Challenge at the booth. You will get to test your knowledge of phishing scams in a fun interactive game and you receive a "Trust This" t-shirt. Here's an online version of the Phish or No Phish Challenge to hone your skills in advance.

VeriSign is also partnering with ...

A new report from Gartner states that the number of phishing incidents rose 39.8% with an average loss per incident of $351. This article summarizes Gartner's recommended response for online businesses,

Gartner recommends that enterprises continue to deploy and improve security solutions that protect accounts and customers against attacks. Enterprises that are custodians of customer accounts should also consider site authentication or assurance to confirm to a customer that he or she is on a legitimate Web site and not a spoof site.

Gartner analyst Avivah Latan goes on to suggest a layered security approach as the best response to phishing.

We know that the practice of phishing, when done effectively, involves surprising the victim, taking him out of his normal context, and creating a sense of urgency through fear. What better opportunity to use all three of these principles than by sending phishing e-mails that are hand-crafted with the current financial crisis in mind. WashingtonPost.com's Brian Krebs gives us a great summary of some of the new attacks the prey on targets' financial concerns.

I recently wrote an entry in which I stated that EV SSL is a powerful mitigator against the classic phishing attack. I have received an e-mail asking me to explain how I know that to be the case. Happy to oblige.

If you were a reader of The SSL Blog a little over a year ago when VeriSign premiered the Extended Validation SSL Certificate, you know about the Tec-Ed research. For newer readers or in case we all don't exactly remember how it went, here's a recap.