Tag Archives: ask
Web Portal Development: 5 Things You Need To Ask Your Potential Web Portal Designer
It is not difficult to find web portal designers: post your project requirements on any freelance site and dozens of freelancers will contact you within 24 hours. However, choosing the right designer for your web portal development project is not easy. Unless you have hands-on experience with web development or web design, you will not be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.
You must look for experienced designers an inexperienced web designer will not be able to take complete responsibility of your project. Also, it is important that your web portal designer is creative: you wont do yourself any favors by hiring an experienced designer whose only ability is using ready-made templates to create boring, flavorless sites. Once you shortlist 5-6 of the best resumes, you need to dig a little deeper. To find out if they are worthy of working on your project, ask the following questions to your potential web portal designers:
Are your previous clients happy with your work?
Your best bet is to talk to your friends and colleagues. If they praise a designer who has worked with them in the past, you have found a reliable designer. But if you cant find the right person that way, the next best thing is to ask for references. Talk to 3-4 companies the designer has previously worked with, and ask them if they are happy with his work. If a number of people say that he is good, chances are he is good.
Have you worked on similar projects before?
If you want to design an ecommerce site, or if you are looking for someone to design a community portal for you, you need someone who has done similar work. If you want an ecommerce site, you need a web portal designer who is aware of all the elements that go into making such a site. You will increase your chances of getting a good website by entrusting your web portal development project to someone who has worked on a similar project.
Do you have creative ideas to engage the audience?
If you are selling something, providing a particular service or you want the people who visit your site to react in a particular way, you need a creative and interactive format that inspires the users to take action. Ask your potential web portal designer about his approach. Find out if he can accomplish this task by using creative design elements.
Do you use Flash and Java?
There are three types of designers out there. One uses a lot of Flash and Java elements, making it difficult for the reader to focus on any particular part of your website. The second type of designer shuns all Flash and Java as window dressing. The third type of web portal designer uses it in moderation. Ask your candidate about his ideas regarding the use of animation; also, ask him how he intends to use such elements to make your website more attractive.
Do you adhere to standard web development practices?
Considering the fact that you do not have an in-house team of designers working on your web portal development project, many different designers may work on your website from time to time. Ask your candidate if he adheres to standard Web 2.0 standards. If your website is built using standard practices, it is easier for other developers and designers to make changes to it.
Managing the Phishing Threat to Your Organization
By now youre familiar with the basic phishing e-mail. You know the one — it comes from a bank you dont do business with asking you to verify personal information such as your name, Social Security Number and your existing bank account information. The e-mail may claim the bank it purports to represent has a check to deposit to your account, is trying to clear a check or something else along those lines. These phishing e-mails are easy to spot, their misspelled words obvious and the bogus links show up clearly. Theyre also fairly easy to fight.
Unfortunately, so many people are on to this kind of attempted identity theft that the phishers have turned to more sophisticated means. They use real bank logos and information theyve gleaned from elsewhere on the Internet to make it look like they know you, and they dont ask for personal information. Rather, they ask you to visit a website that will download a virus that will go through your computer and collect whatever information it can find.
But as phishing continues to evolve, detecting phishing e-mails is becoming more difficult. Worse, some phishing e-mails are really the visible part of an APT. They appear to be from someone you know, and they appear to ask for a response regarding something related to work, your finances or something else a friend may know. But spear phishing, as these highly personal phishing e-mails are called, depends on gaining your confidence by using material gleaned from social networks or other sources. When the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was attacked, for example, the attackers went after the e-mail files. Most likely they were looking for e-mail addresses and information from the contents of the e-mails they found to use in a later spear phishing attack.
But these attacks may not be after personal finance information; rather, they may be after passwords to other companies systems, they may be after the names and e-mail addresses at other companies, or they may be after personal information they can use elsewhere.
The solution to most spear phishing attacks is first to use the best screening systems you can find. Some next-generation firewalls and most high-end security software can at least warn when they find a suspicious message. In addition, users must be trained never to answer requests for personal information of any kind. The bank is never going to e-mail anyone asking for account information. The IRS isnt going to e-mail anyone about taxes, and the security staff at another company isnt going to e-mail anyone about their access information.
Should such an e-mail hit your inbox, however, forward that e-mail to abuse@companyname.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , and contact the sender directly to see if theres actually a need for the information. Whatever you do, dont reply to any e-mails asking for information. If you must supply information, originate the e-mail yourself.
Managing the Phishing Threat to Your Organization
By now youre familiar with the basic phishing e-mail. You know the one — it comes from a bank you dont do business with asking you to verify personal information such as your name, Social Security Number and your existing bank account information. The e-mail may claim the bank it purports to represent has a check to deposit to your account, is trying to clear a check or something else along those lines. These phishing e-mails are easy to spot, their misspelled words obvious and the bogus links show up clearly. Theyre also fairly easy to fight.
Unfortunately, so many people are on to this kind of attempted identity theft that the phishers have turned to more sophisticated means. They use real bank logos and information theyve gleaned from elsewhere on the Internet to make it look like they know you, and they dont ask for personal information. Rather, they ask you to visit a website that will download a virus that will go through your computer and collect whatever information it can find.
But as phishing continues to evolve, detecting phishing e-mails is becoming more difficult. Worse, some phishing e-mails are really the visible part of an APT. They appear to be from someone you know, and they appear to ask for a response regarding something related to work, your finances or something else a friend may know. But spear phishing, as these highly personal phishing e-mails are called, depends on gaining your confidence by using material gleaned from social networks or other sources. When the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was attacked, for example, the attackers went after the e-mail files. Most likely they were looking for e-mail addresses and information from the contents of the e-mails they found to use in a later spear phishing attack.
But these attacks may not be after personal finance information; rather, they may be after passwords to other companies systems, they may be after the names and e-mail addresses at other companies, or they may be after personal information they can use elsewhere.
The solution to most spear phishing attacks is first to use the best screening systems you can find. Some next-generation firewalls and most high-end security software can at least warn when they find a suspicious message. In addition, users must be trained never to answer requests for personal information of any kind. The bank is never going to e-mail anyone asking for account information. The IRS isnt going to e-mail anyone about taxes, and the security staff at another company isnt going to e-mail anyone about their access information.
Should such an e-mail hit your inbox, however, forward that e-mail to abuse@companyname.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , and contact the sender directly to see if theres actually a need for the information. Whatever you do, dont reply to any e-mails asking for information. If you must supply information, originate the e-mail yourself.