Pamela for Skype and PamFax use McAfee SECURE trustmark to message security

Background
The Pamela for Skype software application was created in 2004 as a side project by two fans of Skype, the Internet telephony service. Skype grew like gangbusters and was sold to eBay in 2005 for $2.7 billion. By then, Pamela for Skype had grown into a full time operation under a new company called Scendix Software GmbH.

Pamela for Skype was created to provide enhanced functionality – like voice mail – that was missing from the earliest versions of Skype. The product has since bloomed into a feature rich add-on to the popular Skype platform with functions like Skype Call and Video recording. Today, Pamela and its sister product, Pamfax, have 6-7 million subscribers.

Challenge
As awareness of security grows, people are developing real concerns about faxing communication security. Sending sensitive information – about health care for instance – can be a nail biter. And for business travelers especially, it is more than a matter of personal privacy. Schiferli again:

With more than 1 out of 3 people using Skype to conduct business, the amount of sensitive financial information being sent - contracts and negotiation - is huge. Yet current communication methods are hardly secure. E-mailed documents to be faxed, for example, can be intercepted as they pass through various servers.

Security concerns are one of the reasons why faxing remains a popular way to share documents. Scendix’s Pamfax offers fully encrypted communication, because in fax machine to fax machine there is no relay through public servers. But how do you underscore the security of the offering? Enter McAfee SECURE™ for Websites.

“We get good value for the money we spend. The McAfee SECURE trustmark makes security visible to our customers.”

Dick Schiferli
Co-Founder and CEO, Scendix Software

Solution
For thousands of retailers, the McAfee SECURE trustmark has proven highly effective at reassuring site visitors that their personal information will be safer and more secure at participating retailers. The technical foundation of the McAfee SECURE service rests on daily, comprehensive site scanning that tests the retailer’s website for more than 10,000 vulnerabilities. In addition to this daily hacker testing, sites that earn the McAfee SECURE trustmark also undergo a series of tests to look for practices that, if not corrected, can lead to bad publicity and lost customer confi dence. For example, McAfee SECURE service vulnerability testing checks for unintentional links to malicious websites, the hidden presence of browser exploit code, and the accidental sharing of customer e-mail data with spammers.

Once certified by the McAfee SECURE service, sites can then display the McAfee SECURE trustmark on the sites and indicate their certification in 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 certifi ed by the McAfee SECURE service as safer and more secure places to shop than sites that don’t undergo daily testing.

“When your company is in the early stage and growing...the McAfee SECURE trustmark adds a lot of credibility. The McAfee worldwide footprint can really be a fuel for growth.”

Dick Schiferli
Co-founder and CEO, Scendix Software

Implementation
Scendix reached out to McAfee after seeing the McAfee SECURE trustmark on various websites. After a quick discussion about the service, Scendix had the code installed to enable the initial scan. There was no hardware to buy or software to install. Schiferli noted that:

The entire process was really fast, just a few days.

After tweaking the few minor issues uncovered by the scan, the site was ready for an A/B test of the trustmark. Under the test, half of a site’s visitors are shown the site as is and the other half are shown the same site with the addition of the McAfee SECURE trustmark.

Results and ROI
Scendix tested the trustmark on both websites – Pamela and Pamfax. Both saw signifi cant sales improvements that ranged from 7-12%.

Pamela and Pamfax performed quite differently. Pamela took a while to get to 10%. Pamfax got higher results much quicker. Pamfax customers are business people, and I believe that they are much more inclined to respond to the security message.

Schiferli was convinced and signed a three-year contract that offered a good balance between cost and the security and technical support provided.

We get good value for the money we spend. We’re getting a decent, thorough scan every day. Other solutions did not have this daily model. This is important because we operate a dynamic environment and it tells our customers that this was a fresh scan. The McAfee SECURE trustmark makes security visible to our customers.

Moving Forward
Another aspect that Pamela for Skype and PamFax benefi t from is exposure via McAfee SiteAdvisor technology – which annotates the search results of millions of users worldwide with red, yellow and green “safety” icons. It’s the kind of exposure that businesses, especially young ones, can benefi t from.

McAfee is interesting when your company is in the early stage and growing. Credibility is a big issue you cope with when you’re young. Customers don’t trust you if you’re new. McAfee does a good job of telling users which areas of the web are secure and which are not. And the McAfee SECURE trustmark adds a lot of credibility. The McAfee worldwide footprint can really be a fuel for growth.