October 30, 2007
| Commentary | You may have seen the Hacker Safe logo on some of the websites you've visited. The presence of the logo is intended to increase consumer confidence; the premise is that the site has been checked for remotely compromisable vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, groups such as sla.ckers have repeatedly succeeded in finding vulnerabilities on sites emblazoned with the Hacker Safe logo.
But the bigger issue isn't whether the program actually leads to better security, but rather the false sense of security the presence of the logo creates. After all, look at phishing scam email and phishing sites which duplicate the logo and other images from bank and ecommerce sites. An image is no assurance of anything - it can be easily faked. Consider this post from a Hacker Safe logo counterfeiter, "Instead of buying their service I just made my own button. I save myself the money, and I still get all the (psychological) benefits."
On October 30, 2007, security vendor McAfee announced the intended acquisition of Hacker Safe "for approximately $51 million in cash up front and with an earn-out of up to an additional $24 million if certain performance targets are met."
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