Dark Reading's New Look

Take a close look at today's edition of Dark Reading. Notice anything different? Take a closer look. We think you'll like what you see.

After nearly three years of bringing you the best -- and the scariest -- of security news and information, Dark Reading has undergone a bit of a makeover. The changes we're making aren't drastic, and, as with most new releases, we're not guaranteeing they'll all work perfectly right out of the box. But we hope that in the end, the updates will make the site even more usable and helpful to our readers.The first change you'll notice is a new logo featuring the transcendent yin-and-yang symbol and a new tagline: "Protect the Business -- Enable Access." We think this new branding better reflects the seesaw battle you fight each day as you seek to make your organization as effective as possible in its operations and communications -- while always keeping your data safe.

In keeping with this branding, you'll also see a slight shift in our content and coverage. Yes, we'll continue to bring you the latest news and insight on the vulnerabilities and exploits that threaten your users and your business. We've built our reputation on that sort of coverage, and we won't back away from it, not even a little bit.

But in addition to the best coverage of breaches, vulnerabilities, and attacks, you'll also see more about how these threats affect your business -- and what you can do about them. You'll see additional insight on how security can be used to enable new business processes, not just restrict them. And you'll see more purposeful coverage of the day-to-day problems that security professionals face, such as compliance management projects and the growing movement toward risk management.

To support this new approach, you'll note some changes in the way the Dark Reading site operates. Many of the navigation points on the home page have changed, and you may find that some of your old bookmarks don't work like they used to. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. But we hope you'll take a few minutes to kick the tires on our new page designs, which we think are much easier to navigate and read.

Back here behind the curtain, we've also shifted to a new publishing platform, which will make it easier for us to provide new features and content on our pages, resulting in a site that is more dynamic and usable than it has been in the past. You will also find your experience on Dark Reading to be consistent with your experience on our sister publications, such as InformationWeek, Byte and Switch, and Intelligent Enterprise, all of which are rated among the best in their fields by their respective audiences -- and all of which are now part of the InformationWeek Business Technology Network.

You will also notice a few new features on the Dark Reading site. One important addition is "Deep Inspection," which offers in-depth perspective on emerging topics that goes beyond what we already provide in our News Analysis section. Twice a month, Deep Inspection will bring you a new level of coverage that you haven't seen previously on the Dark Reading site.

In addition, we've streamlined some parts of the site to make them less busy, more dynamic, and more interesting to read. For example, we're consolidating our blogs and columns sections into a single section that will contain four blogs: Dark Dominion, written by Dark Reading editors; Evil Bytes, written by security experts Robert "RSnake" Hansen and John Sawyer; CS Island, a blog from our colleagues at the Computer Security Institute; and Hacked Off, a rapidly rotating blog that offers insights from a wide range of viewpoints, including our current popular columnists and some new names you'll read in the weeks to come.

There are other changes, too. From now on, you'll be able to post comments to each story without going to a separate message board. The message boards themselves are being overhauled. In addition, our search terms and keywords are changing to make navigation and technology hunting easier and more fruitful. And there'll be new, larger features added to the site in the not-too-distant future.

At Dark Reading, our goal is simple: We want to be the most useful and engaging news and information site in the IT security industry. We hope that the changes we've made will help us -- and our readers -- move closer to that goal. As always, we welcome your input and your feedback. This is your security site. As you take in our new look, please let us know what you like and what you don't. As you'll see from our enhanced design, we're anxious to make the site work better for you.

- Tim Wilson, Site Editor, Dark Reading