In our opinion, the answer to this question is ‘No’. The main reason is it is not safe/ it is not secure.
For over 10 years many Australian-based website agencies and freelancers have been sending the actual website design & development work to people off-shore. These people are located in countries like:
- Bangladesh
- India
- Philippines
- Bali
- Thailand
They are doing this to:
- Avoid paying Australians. This means fewer jobs in this industry for Australians living in Australia.
- This is purely to maximise their profits.
They pay these people off-shore anywhere from $5USD to $20USD per hour, but bill them out for a LOT more.
It is very easy for agencies and freelancers to find off-shore workers in these countries. There are websites that make this possible. They meet these people online via these websites, hire them online and pay them online.
Often the agencies and freelancers who do this will NOT tell you they are ‘off-shoring the work’. They will keep this a secret. They don’t want you to know, because they realise that you may object, especially once you know how non-secure and how unsafe it is.
Why is it NOT Secure nor Safe
Off-shore workers need Admin level login access (and/or very high ‘developer level’ login access) to your website to build it and/or to update it.
When an agency or freelancer gives high-level access to your website to someone they have never met, whether they are located in some other country (or even here in Australia), they are potentially compromising your website. Why? Because these people located off-shore can do anything they want with your website (and get away with it) including but not limited to:
- Cloning your website
- Hacking your website
- Giving other people Admin level access to your website
- Deleting login accounts (including your own)
- Changing or delete passwords
- Installing spyware, ransomware, malware and other malicious items
- Hijacking your website to perform nefarious SEO activities
- Accessing your private data
- Installing viruses on your website
- Changing the words, images, etc in your website… including adding expletives
- Creating backdoors into your website (secret login access points that only they know about).
- Breaking any part of your website that they want
- Breaking your entire website if they really want to
- Anything else they want to do
Another major concern is that agencies and freelancers who give login access to off-shore workers may not always transfer their logins in a safe way. This then can lead to 3rd party hackers intercepting the logins, to then gain login access to your website.
ANYTHING and everything can be done behind your back, if off-shore workers are working on your website. To avoid any of this happening to you, please read the ‘our advice’ section further down this page.
Please also note: People located off-shore in these (and other) countries are also not always highly skilled. This can mean:
- Poor quality code can be added to your website, which slows down the speed of your website. It can also create security holes within your website
- Introduce code bugs into your website
- Cause time delays and ultimately lead to project hold-ups, project deadlines being missed and other issues.
- Complacency and even a ‘total lack of effort’ or care-factor: Not building the website correctly, being lazy and taking short-cuts
- A poor quality website that won’t help your business. As in, a total waste of money.
- Many other things that will directly negatively affect the success of your website.
They can also get your website hacked if:
- They don’t run up-to-date anti-virus and anti-malware software on the computers they use to login to your website. This is yet another way your website can get hacked
- By using older computers, older software, older website browsers and other older technology that may have security vulnerabilities.
- By not keeping software, operating systems, website browsers, etc up to date with the latest security updates.
How to Protect Yourself - Our Advice:
If you have an existing website, ask the Agency or Freelancer who looks after it: “Who does the work on my website?” Ask for their specific names and where they are each located. It is best to ask them this face-to-face in person or via a Zoom or Skype (or similar) call. Gauge their reaction, and look out for lying. We recommend even asking to be introduced to the people working on your website.
If you don’t yet have a website but are looking for an agency or freelancer to create it, ask the same question: “If I give you this website project, who will be doing the work on my website?” Again, judge if they answer truthfully or not, ask for their names and where they are each located.
Tip: If someone quotes you less than $800 to create your website and every other quote you receive is upward of $3,000, chances are the person who has quoted ‘overly cheap’ is off-shoring the work.
Please note:
ALL the work we do is done right here in Australia by Australians! When you work with us your money stays in Australia; in the Australian economy. You are supporting fellow Australian families. We also massively care about your privacy and security. And we care about doing all work on time (if not ahead of time) and getting the best results for you! PLUS, we never take short-cuts!