Short summary of the system
Read about the problem, current solutions, Company On Net™ solution, social benefits and the awards received. Very short and to the point.
The problem
Company On Net™ resolves the fundamental problem of Internet liberalism – the inability to identify the owners of a website. The causes for this problem are the freely publicly available domains, without any kind of verification of the buyer, which can even be completely anonymous for a small annual fee.
We don´t identify ourselves in every day life this
way. Why do we allow it on the Internet?
Consequences are severe. Cheating, information and identity theft, known as “phishing” is at the all time high, leaving the average Internet user vulnerable and mistrustful. Because of this the credibility of all websites is questioned, especially the smallest ones. This leads to monopolization of the Internet, as visitors only trust the biggest and most known websites.
Current solutions
The Internet currently lacks an appropriate solution to business authentication. The current partial solution is Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate. It should be noted, however, that SSL is nothing more than a protocol for the safe transfer of information over the Internet, a technological solution.
SSL prevents eavesdropping during the transfer of data and the
substitution of data (the so-called man-in-the-middle attack), but it
does not offer any sort of verification of the recipient. 
This means that we have no way of
knowing who the recipient really is, since they can choose any identity
they wish.
SSL is not a solution!
In the end SSL companies can only guarantee the secure transfer of information through the SSL – also to the wrong recipients. And this is exactly what is happening – cyber criminals now start to use low cost SSL certificates for increasing the level of trust. Many of the latest phishing websites had SSL certificates!
The solution
In the case of Company On Net™, the company must go through a comprehensive process before receiving the verification. This verification process consists of three steps:
- Identification of the customer
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- Why? To prevent the verification of correct company information with wrong e-mail and website information.
- Verification of the company
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- Why? To check if the company exists and if the company data is correct.
- Validation of the websites
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- Why? To make certain that the websites belong to the verified company.
Company On Net™ verifiers are local authorities – Chambers of commerce and industry (example: Slovenia). The only financial and credit report provider for Company On Net™ is Coface, a global credit company.
When the company is verified, it receives a new, so-called Verified Page, which anchors the company on the Internet. No matter of the changes in the companies address, products or websites, this Verified Page will always be located at the same URL. In the next step the company´s websites are validated with Company On Net™ Seals which indicate that a website has a known and verified owner.
The verification system on the Internet consists from three basic elements:
- The Seal on the validated commercial website – contains basic information about the certificate and on which domain it should stand.
- The Certificate – confirms the credibility of the commercial website; reachable only through the seal on the validated commercial website. It stands on the domain https://check.company-on.net/.
- The Verified Page – on the verified domain `abbreviation-on.net´ with detailed company information and a contact form.
There are many benefits for companies in having Company On Net™. The most important is the increased visitors´, potential clients´ and partners´ trust in the company and their websites. It increases the credibility of the company on-line and thus speeds up the buying/selling/negotiating process. Besides that it also affects search engine optimization, the visibility of the company on-line and it conforms it to the standing EU legislation regarding the protection of personal information.
Social benefits
Company On Net™ helps the society by separating the legitimate on-line businesses from fraudulent or misleading ones, protects the consumer and prevents Internet crime and abuses. It also increases overall consumer confidence and trust in companies with websites and increases the competitiveness of smaller to medium-sized on-line businesses.
Awards
Company On Net™ received many innovation awards in Slovenia and also at the European level. In 2008 on the ISSE conference it received a TeleTrusT Innovation Award for one of the best security innovations in Europe.
