EV SSL Certificates

Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates are the latest type of SSL certificates, issued according to guidelines from the CA/Browser Forum.

Members of the CA/B Forum include the major browsers and SSL certification authorities from around the world, including QuoVadis.

The expansion of online business is accompanies by growing concerns about the rise of "phishing" and other Internet scams, whose financial consequences weaken the trust in electronic communications. The new EV SSL certificates help reduce these criminal activities by providing a rigorous regime to validate the identity of companies, their control of domains, and the authority of their staff.

The new validation standard
EV SSL certificates follow the same validation process, no matter which CA issued them or the location of the company or the protected website. In addition, the new generation of browsers clearly highlight the identity information in the EV SSL certificate using enhanced security reports. This makes it easier for the visitors to know that they are at the correct website, and to confirm who owns it.

Browsers show green for go
If a browser encounters an EV SSL certificate, the address bar changes its color to green. The name of the certificate holder and the certificate issuer is shown. The knowledge to be on an authentic website and being able to verify it, increases confidence in the certificate owner.

Browsers with EV SSL support
The following list shows browsers and the versions that show the green address bar.

• Internet Explorer 7
• Mozilla Firefox 3
• Opera 9.5
• Apple Safari 3.2
• Google Chrome Beta1

See how browsers react to EV SSL here.

Browsers which are not compliant with EV SSL, behave the same as they would encounter a normal SSL certificate.

Backwards compatibility of browsers.
The issue of backwards compatibility comes up frequently in the CA/Browser Forum. The official position of the software vendors on the Forum is that e-business sites must be very careful in accomodating older browser versions. While SSL may or may not work in those versions, the older browsers have so many other critical security vulnerabilities that the SSL is irrelevant. they are simply insecure. In particular, they are vulnerable to the "local eavesdropping" attacks that are gaining popularity, where the malicious code steals data from the user's computer before it enters the SSL-protected channel.

Certificate order
EV SSL certificates may be issued by QuoVadis Registration Authorities (RAs) or using Trustlink SSL. Validation follows the increased diligence standards of the EV Guidelines.

For the issuance, a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) must be created on the server. CSR instructions may be found here.  The standard term of the certificate is 2 years.

The issuance of the certificate requires the following documents:

• completed and signed application form
• certification of the certificate application and the accompanying documents
• copy of passport or ID of the Certificate Requester and Authorizing Person
• certified copy of a corporate registration

Pricelist for SSL Certificates  

Technical report about EV SSL certificates (German):
Mehr Sicherheit für den Internetbenutzer