An organization that works to enhance online trust and advance best practices to protect user security, privacy and identity has ranked HealthCare.gov as the second-highest scoring site in its audit of 1,000 consumer-facing websites.
The group the Online Trust Alliance conducted a composite analysis focusing on three major categories consumer protection; site, server and infrastructure security; and privacy, transparency and disclosures.
The 10 highest-scoring sites in OTA’s 2016 Online Trust Audit were: (1) Twitter, (2) HealthCare.gov, (3) Pinterest, (4) The White House, (5) Dropbox, (6) FileYourTaxes, (7) LifeLock, (8) Instagram, (9) 1040.com, and (10) The Gap.
“Since its inception in 1998, the importance of this audit and adoption of the prescribed best practices has been heightened by the increased sophistication of cybercrime, account takeovers, data breaches, ransomware and identity theft,” the group said in announcing the results. “As cyber threats increase and privacy concerns expand, this report is more timely than ever, underscoring the imperative that data security, consumer protection and responsible privacy practices need to be integrated into every service and business process.”
While Twitter, Healthcare.cov and the other eight websites scored at the very top of the audit’s “Honor Roll,” about 50 percent of all analyzed websites also made the Roll this year, about 6 percent more than in 2015. To qualify for Honor Roll status, an organization must receive a composite score of 80 percent or better and a score of at least 55 percent in each category. Failing any one category will automatically cause a company to fail overall.
The group said the improvement was evidence “that many companies have moved beyond compliance, and are adopting meaningful self-regulation and data-stewardship practices.”
Among government websites, 46 percent of audited federal government sites made the Honor Roll with most failures in the category due to inadequate adoption of email authentication standards.
In the federal category, the top scorers were (1) HealthCare.gov, (2) the White House, (3) the Federal Trade Commission, (4) the Social Security Administration and (5) the U.S Postal Service.
Date: June 14, 2016