Comments on: Mcafee Pulls a “New Coke”: Will it Hurt Retailer’s Conversions

By: Bs

Bs — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:48:47 +0000

Trust Guard looks too amateur – I don’t see any large websites using it, either.

Control Scan looks slightly better, and seems to have better features, but they too, lack large brand-name websites using it. They told me that McAfee gives their seal away free to the large companies, that’s why all the big ones use it. I don’t know if that’s a load of bull, however.

By: Brandon Greenlee

Brandon Greenlee — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:21:41 +0000

I’d still recommend going trustguard. If you’d like, you can e-mail me and I’ll show you a couple sites our company is using it on.

By: Bs

Bs — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:09:58 +0000

Our McAfee Secure is expiring soon, and Control Scan is trying to get me to switch. Control Scan offers:
Business Verified Seal, Verified Secure Seal, EVSSL (URL turns green), Verisign Secure seal, and this thing called Ratepoint (allows reviews of your site) for a thousand dollars less than McAfee Secure – which only offers the seal. The sites that Control Scan has emailed me are all tiny, crappy websites that look unprofessional. But their product looks good.. What am I to do?? Any advice is great. Thanks.

By: EarnCashFastWithGoogle Complaints

EarnCashFastWithGoogle Complaints — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:33:44 +0000

[...] was bought out by McAfee and ultimately changed the HackerSafe logo to McAfee Secure. Click here to read about the HackerSafe change to McAfee Secure, which be reading the comments looks like was done [...]

By: My-Internet-Payday discussion

My-Internet-Payday discussion — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:48:29 +0000

[...] Click here to read about the change from Hackersafe to McAfee secure. [...]

By: MyGooglePayday Charges Explained

MyGooglePayday Charges Explained — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:04:12 +0000

[...] HackerSafe no longer exists as it was bought out by McAfee in late 2007. McAfee AUTOMATICALLY replaced the Hackersafe logos with McAfee Secure. You can read about the switchover from the Hackersafe logo to the Mcafee Secure logo here. [...]

By: Property Doc

Property Doc — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:33:47 +0000

I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ve always somewhat considered McAfee a “lesser” virus scanner than others. I think that’s because they definitely used to be about 5 yrs ago, and I’ve never lost that grudge. But even today, I’d much rather see a Scanalert (the old co) logo saying HackerSafe, rather than “McAfee Secure”. Because McAfee Secure speaks to me: “30 floppy disks to slow your computer down and not protect it anyways”.

By: Nir@ Belt Buckles

Nir@ Belt Buckles — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 23:23:15 +0000

Honestly I was a little upset at the all ordeal… I recieved great service from Hacker Safe and since they have been aquired i can’t get anyone on the phone and if you do they have 9 digits extension number, what gives???
I personally don’t like the look of the new seal but i think that mcafee is more recognized with security than Hacker Safe… If they can make their seal sexier it might work…

By: Ken Ryan

Ken Ryan — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 03:55:07 +0000

In my previous comment I noted that out testing has not shown any measurable improvement in conversions as a result of displaying the Hackersafe logo.

In all fairness though, I must also report that their scanning did uncover several (minor) vulnerabilities that we were able to repair.

All in all, I’m glad we did it, but seriously doubt that we will renew.

By: Bryan Eisenberg

Bryan Eisenberg — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:18:35 +0000

My good friend and former HackerSafe employee, just started blogging and her first blog posts is all about this issue. Check it out at http://crestapillsbury.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/what-is-mcafee-thinking/ .

By: John Quarto-vonTivadar

John Quarto-vonTivadar — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:27:43 +0000

I have to say, though, if the hacker gets in and succesfully orders 6.666×10^40 items, the first thing on my mind is not “Mcafee”, it’s “did it clear the merchant account?”. Cuz if so, I’m off to Tahiti and the rest of you can kvetch about SQL injection attacks while I lounge on the beach

By: Anne Henmi

Anne Henmi — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:20:47 +0000

While it’s nice that you think a logo will quell your customers fears, please do your own security. Trusting someone by paying them to put a graphic on your website that’s “secure” is only inviting trouble.

By: Brandon Greenlee

Brandon Greenlee — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:06:40 +0000

Samir,

If you are looking for PCI testing, you can do much better than the service that Hackersafe provides.

All of these security verification companies are simply marketing ploys- there is no actual benefit of this type of verification and testing- other than the false sense of security they can provide non-computer savvy customers.

I would venture that there is a small conversion increase that comes along with certifications, but certainly not enough to warrant paying more than a couple hundred a year.

By: Russ McRee

Russ McRee — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:50:22 +0000

Here’s an idea. Why don’t you folks consider building securely coded websites rather than depending on fraudulent, pathetic services like Hacker Safe / McAfee Secure to give your customers a false sense of security, just to drive up your conversions?
Take the above mentioned PelicanParts as an example. Should the shopping cart be vulnerable to SQL injection while displaying the Hacker Safe logo? I think not. Need proof? Here’s a screen shot for you.
http://holisticinfosec.org/images/hackersafe/PelicanParts_SQLi.png

By: Boris

Boris — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:19:13 +0000

We just started working with them and they claim that the new logo gets better results in tests.

By: Samir Shah

Samir Shah — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:57:31 +0000

Brandon, my main concern with TrustGuard is their legitmacy. They offer no security and all they do is dish out seals to any company that passes their minimal requirements.

HackerSafe seals are the #1 in the industry and are the most recognized… but with this merge, some of their customers may switch to other scanning and website companies.. I heard they are beginning to charge customers based on their traffic.. I dont like that idea.

By: Ken Ryan

Ken Ryan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:18:18 +0000

They notified us about two weeks before the change.

We saw no gain using the Hackersafe trustmark.

We had it on our home page (top left) for quite awhile. Since it’s paid for, we continue to use it on our ecommerce pages, but have no intention of renewing.

I guess we’ll have to test the “new and improved” McAfee badge. I would be surprised if it results in any measurable improvement though.

By: Linda Bustos

Linda Bustos — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:48:36 +0000

Ugh, should have proofread the comment, correction:

“…so that eventually customers will recognize the new logo right away”

By: Linda Bustos

Linda Bustos — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:46:56 +0000

My initial reaction was “why throw away such powerful brand equity?” The name “HACKER SAFE” seems brilliant to me (I’m not necessarily right) because it first arouses a fear and immediately calms it. I know I’m supposed to be a computer nerd, but I’m not really that familiar with the McAfee brand and its antivirus software because I would always just use whatever my computer nerd friends would tell me to install

I remember the trial period where retailers could use either of the badges, some still using the green and black one. But I think it’s a good move to make the badges consistent so that eventually customers will recognize it right away.

Looking forward to those test results…

By: Bryan Eisenberg

Bryan Eisenberg — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:19:25 +0000

Jason,

Thanks for the update. Like you I want to hear from more retailers. The handful who have spoken to me confirmed what Wayne told me.

Bryan

By: Jason Billingsley

Jason Billingsley — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:28:19 +0000

I did an video interview with Rich Murphy from McAfee last month: http://www.getelastic.com/hackersafe-mcafee/

Word is – testing showed an improvement in conversion compared to the Hackersafe badge. It is true that the McAfee name is much more recognizable globally. It is also true that those with the McAfee security products installed locally will get icons next to listings in search engines.

My initial skepticism has been calmed and I’d like more retailers to report on actual test results.

BTW – they did have a transition period where retailers could use either badge.

By: Terrell

Terrell — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:57:40 +0000

The new logo looks like a cheap plug for their antivirus software. I’m sure McAfee’s competitors are as pleased with the new logo as McAfee is.

By: Kevin Stecko

Kevin Stecko — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:54:48 +0000

They switched us over in mid-June. I received a call and an email from my “account manager” and he made it seem like everyone else was going to have to pay for this “upgrade”. At first I had the same concerns as everyone else and then he told me that eventually everyone was being changed so there was no use fighting it.

The big advantage that they sold me on was the fact that anyone who has McAfee installed will see the McAfee Secure shield in Google, Yahoo, and MSN searches. See this url for an example: http://www.mcafeesecure.com/ms/?p=4

I have not noticed a change in conversion rate, but we did not do A/B testing.

By: John Doe

John Doe — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:30:21 +0000

Will it hurt, that is debatable, but I sure would have not changed it, maybe a minor upgrade, I think the marketing manager needs to revist her roots.

By: Bryan Eisenberg

Bryan Eisenberg — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:26:17 +0000

You all make very valid points. I think the key would have been on how they rolled this out. Of course McAfee is better known to consumers than ScanAlert, but the recognizable seal was an emotional trigger that worked. We’ll see how it plays out.

Brian did your conversion drop as a result of the change?