Online travel agent Opodo’s report of a 10 per cent rise in sales thanks to the inclusion of a security kitemark on its payment pages is clear evidence that trust remains a core issue for ecommerce adoption.

And with identity fraud continuing to grow – the latest figures show a five per cent rise to £95.3m in the first six months of this year – customer concerns are not going away.

Questions remain as to whether online security kitemarks provide anything more substantial than the equivalent of a lick of paint on a shop front. But their value in business terms is growing.

Microsoft’s new version of its Internet Explorer web browser, for example, turns the address bar red or green depending on the site’s security credentials – a function proving popular with users.

Computing has been banging the drum for online trust initiatives for many years. The more that evidence such as Opodo’s is produced, the faster security guarantees will become ubiquitous, and the faster consumer confidence will be gained.

It is debatable whether or not it is the actual improved security, or merely the appearance of it, that produces this effect. But the more that larger players kitemark their sites, the more consumers will expect similar guarantees from all online transactions.

Opodo’s use of a private sector IT provider also argues against the knee-jerk assumption that security standards always need to be provided by government-backed, non-commercial schemes. Private sector companies may be better placed both to provide the technology and to respond to changes in the requirements and threats facing their customers.

The government does have a role. But it is in the provision of a clear legal framework within which the conduct of electronic transactions take place, rather than dictating what security measures must be in place, or how they should be communicated with potential customers.

What do you think? Email us at: feedback@computing.co.uk