ModernCoinMart Accelerates Buy and Sell Transactions and Improves Protection with McAfee SECURE Service

In 2004, one of the nation’s leading coin experts, John Maben, launched ModernCoinMart.com to buy and sell high-grade modern coins of all types, including mint state and proof American Silver Eagles, American Gold Eagles, American Platinum Eagles, US Mint Commemoratives, Buffalo Gold, and First Spouse Gold. Today, Modern Coin Mart is one of the largest and most respected sources for modern coins in the United States. The company buys and sells coins directly to online shoppers from its e-commerce storefront, www.moderncoinmart.com.

Challenge
Like many B2C web-based businesses, ModernCoinMart outsources web hosting to a third party. The web hosting company scans the company’s e-commerce website for viruses and vulnerabilities, but ModernCoinMart had no visibility into those reports. Knowing that the threat landscape is constantly changing, Wayne Leiser, ModernCoinMart’s chief technology officer questioned whether the protection provided by the web hosting company was sufficient.

ModernCoinMart was also looking for ways to boost traffic to its sites and increase the number of transactions conducted by ModernCoinMart.com site visitors. The company realized that some visitors to the site browsed the company’s coin offerings and considered buying or selling coins, but abandoned their shopping carts before finalizing transactions. The company wanted to reassure its customers that their credit card and personal information was secure and that the company’s website server was not infected by malware.

“The McAfee SECURE service helps increase online buy and sell transactions significantly and provides better protection than we had before. It’s definitely a worthwhile investment.”

Wayne Leiser
Chief Technology Officer, ModernCoinMart.com

Solution
When Mr. Leiser learned that the McAfee SECURE™ trustmark proved to be highly effective at increasing online sales conversions for thousands of retailers, while reassuring site visitors that their personal information will be safer, he was interested. The McAfee SECURE service provides comprehensive, daily scanning that searches for more than 40,000 vulnerabilities. In addition to daily hacker testing, sites that earn the McAfee SECURE trustmark also undergo a series of tests to uncover unintentional links to malicious websites, the hidden presence of browser exploit code, and the accidental sharing of customer email data. All of this scanning and testing is done remotely by McAfee, without any need for expensive or complicated hardware or software.

Once certified to this high standard of security, McAfee SECURE customers showcase their safety status by automatically displaying the McAfee SECURE trustmark, which is picked up by search engines annotated by McAfee® SiteAdvisor® software. Consumers who see the trustmark when browsing or searching Google, Microsoft Bing, and Yahoo! (as well as 19 other search engines) see sites certified by the McAfee SECURE service as safer and more secure places to shop than sites that don’t undergo daily testing.

Implementation
Mr. Leiser decided to put the McAfee SECURE service to the test during a 30-day trial. During the trial period, Mr. Leiser also ran an A/B test to measure the effectiveness of the McAfee SECURE trustmark when displayed on the ModernCoinMart.com website. During the 30-day test, half of the 74,890 visitors to the site saw the SECURE trustmark on the site and half did not.

Results and ROI
After running one month, the A/B testing showed a 14 percent increase in online lead conversions when comparing the number of transactions completed by people who viewed web pages with the McAfee SECURE trustmark to the number of transactions made by those who viewed web pages without the trustmark. “The A/B testing showed that the McAfee SECURE trustmark was beneficial. People know and trust the McAfee name,” said Mr. Leiser.

Implementing the McAfee SECURE service is very straightforward. Mr. Leiser makes a simple code change and, as soon as the daily scan shows that the site is secure, the trustmark and most recent scan date appears on site web pages. “Using the McAfee SECURE service is easy too. When I log on, pie charts tell me instantly by the presence of red instead of green if there are vulnerabilities or other issues that need attention. I can also click to view more detailed reports,” said Mr. Leiser.

“With the McAfee trustmark, visitors to our site clearly felt their information was a lot safer and were therefore much more likely to follow through with their purchases.”

Wayne Leiser
Chief Technology Officer, ModernCoinMart.com

Not long after implementing the McAfee SECURE service, the company deployed a new, faster web server. Mr. Leiser appreciated the ability to easily scan the new server for vulnerabilities in a development environment before releasing it to production.

In addition, ModernCoinMart’s business and its customers’ personal information is a lot safer, thanks to daily scans that result in faster identification of vulnerabilities and, therefore, faster remediation. Mr. Leiser takes comfort in the daily vulnerability scan reports he receives automatically from the McAfee SECURE service. He also uses the McAfee PCI Certification service to audit PCI compliance status. “Whenever McAfee SECURE service alerts me to a vulnerability, I immediately notify our web hosting provider so they can fix it right away,” Mr. Leiser stated. “They like that we use McAfee SECURE service because it catches vulnerabilities and provides a detailed report for them to act upon.”

Mr. Leiser has also been extremely happy with the level of support he has received from McAfee: “Whenever I have emailed a question or concern to McAfee, I have received an answer almost immediately. All my issues have been resolved promptly. I’d give McAfee Support five stars.”

Moving Forward
ModernCoinMart has been very pleased with its decision to use the McAfee SECURE service and, should the company foray into additional markets, it fully intends to take the McAfee SECURE trustmark with it. “We would turn to the McAfee SECURE service again. Even if your online business uses another company to host your website, I would highly recommend using this service,” Mr. Leiser suggested.