Thawte

[Xen0nine]

here is today's letter from Thawte which is relevant to our recent discussion.  They even mention GeoTrust specifically and say that they have almost 100% browser compatibility while other options are only 85%.

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Lately, our competitors have taken our recent price action as an
opportunity to approach our entire customer base at renewal time
to attempt to switch them to their lower priced, lower quality
digital certificates. Please be aware that Thawte holds all its
customers' information strictly confidential, but competitors are
using Internet "spidering" techniques to obtain this info.
Through this method, competitors have approached many customers
and sent misleading emails in an effort to get them to switch
from Thawte.

I want to provide you and your company with the appropriate
information that will enable you and your company to adequately
address this issue when it arises. With your assistance, we can
provide the market with education and products that will enhance
trust on the Internet and will result in more Thawte product
sales for you and your company.

1.    Fraud on the Internet
One in three Web merchants say that the risk of fraud is their
biggest problem with online systems, according to a recent study
by Gartner.  Online entities that have a Thawte certificate will
help mitigate this risk which can result in significant revenue
improvements. Thawte always has, and always will continue to
issue digital certificates only to entities that pass our strict
authentication policies and procedures.  This is what we are
all about here at Thawte—providing products and tools that make
people feel comfortable to communicate highly confidential
information with known entities over the Internet.  When the
Thawte certificate or site seal is seen on a merchant's site,
customers can feel confident about doing business or transacting
with these merchants via the Internet. In conjunction with
VeriSign, we are leading efforts with an industry group that is
defining and maintaining the highest authentication standards for
the industry via the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants (AICPA), which, at the end of the day, reduces the
risk of fraud and enhances trust on the Internet.

2.    Improvements to Thawte's Infrastructure
To improve our customer's and partner's online shopping
experience, we have greatly improved the functionality of
Thawte's ISP channel products and tools. As far as the products
are concerned, major product improvements include: free reissues
for all 40 and 128 bit server certificates for the life of the
product (excluding any changes that would affect the CSR),
real-time certificate validation by date within our site seal
(which is available in 13 different languages) and enhanced 7X24
fault tolerant operations environments via system re-architecture
and new hardware. Improvements have been made in the Account,
Finance and Product sections of the Thawte ISP management tools.
The new ISP tool enhancements allow for more flexible pricing and
administration scenarios as well as online shopping cart
functionality. Reports have been implemented that provide
high level views of your certificate business with easy "drill
down" capabilities.  The new product and tool enhancements have
been designed to enhance both you and your customers'
satisfaction as well as to enhance order processing and overall
business management effectiveness.

3.    First increase in 5 years
This is the first pricing action that Thawte has taken on its
base products in the past five years.  Even with Thawte's recent
price increase, when comparing fully authenticated, like-for-like
products, Thawte's server certificates are still among the lowest
cost alternatives available today (Thawte's server certificate
vs. GeoTrust's True Business ID).

4.    Browser Compatibility
Also, we have 99.5% browser compatibility vs. our competitors
that have approximately 85%.  Because of this compatibility issue
we have had a number of merchants return to Thawte because their
customers were getting browser errors.  As you can see, if you
can have more customers facilitate successful Internet
transactions, you and your customers can generate more
revenue through online customer experiences and reduce support
costs via customer queries.

5.    Stringent third party Audits
We have also just passed a very stringent WebTrust for
Certificate Authorities audit that we are very proud of.  This
audit was performed by an independent third party and confirmed
that Thawte maintains policies and procedures that make Thawte a
trustworthy Certificate Authority (CA), and adheres to them in
performing our business.  The results of the WebTrust for
CA's audit can be viewed on our corporate website's home page at
www.thawte.com.

6.    Trust the future of your online business
Thawte is in the digital certificate business for the long haul.
We will be here with you and your customers today as well as
tomorrow.  Some competitors may be offering a quick, low cost
solution, but Trust on the Internet takes focused adherence to
stringent policies. We are here to promote and continually
enhance trust and confidence for everyone on the Internet
forever.

At this point, I hope you agree with me and feel that there is no
need to consider options other than Thawte for you and your
customers' digital certificate needs.  We appreciate you and your
company's efforts to help educate the market with information
provided in the letter.  If you would like to discuss any of
these issues more with our ISP Sales and Support Team, please
feel free to contact us via e-mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or
via phone at +27 21 917 8929.  We appreciate your business and
want to enable you and your customers' successes today and into
the future!