For over a year, SSL providers have been leading the effort to find new ways to help reduce phishing incidents and other forms of online fraud, and improve consumer confidence in online transactions. The result is that there will be a single standard for the issuance of new High Assurance SSL certificates.

High Assurance certificates will entail a higher level of business verification than any other certificate on the market, using a thoroughly defined industry-standard vetting process. Additionally, the developers of major browsers intend to give High Assurance certificates stronger visibility in the user interfaces of their next-generation browsers. Since High Assurance certificate identity information will be clearly displayed in these new-generation browsers, consumers will easily be able to discern that they are indeed at the site they think they are, and not a fraudulent version of a popular website.