Internet hijackers have stolen away thousands domains to date and these numbers are set to grow as a large number of domain owners continue to ignore this issue. The World Wide Web is open to everyone in any city, town or country across the globe. Therefore, hijackers in any part of the world from New Delhi to New York or Moscow can take away your precious internet properties without moving an inch from their seats! This is a serious issue and you shouldn’t wait to learn about its intensity the hard way. Taking pre-emptive way is the best way to deal with such threats.
Exploiting Vulnerabilities
In the last few years several cases of domain hijacking have been reported and most of these incidents occurred primarily due to some flaws in the existing internet domain registration and transfer system. Hijackers exploit existing vulnerabilities to steal away internet domains from their rightful owners. These flaws exist because of vulnerabilities that are otherwise meant to benefit millions of domain owners and expedite domain transfer processes. Eliminating such flaws is nothing short of a challenge for various regulatory agencies and domain registrar companies. However, additional layers of protection are now being introduced by various domain registrar companies to prevent above mentioned mishaps.
If you own one or more domains, it is important to take all necessary steps to prevent domain hijacking. Locking a domain is no doubt one of the best ways to do that. Nowadays, a large number of domain registrars are offering this much-needed service to their customers from all over the world. With a locking facility, your domains are protected against a large number of internet domain registration and transfer vulnerabilities.
Illegal Transfer
An internet domain registrar company grants permission for every domain transfer. Usually, the permission for such transfer is granted over e-mails. Cross checks are also performed through emails only. If this contact information is old or lost, a hijacker can use the opportunity to steal away your domains. An authorized person can successfully approve illegal domain transfers by gaining access to your email or other contact channels. In most cases, such things go unnoticed until the domain transfer is finally over. This is mostly due to the reason that domain hijackers first gain access to your email account.
As long as domain transfer communications are done over emails, the probability of domain hijacking is not zero. The best way to deal with this vulnerability in internet domain registration and transfer process is to lock your domain. It adds a solid layer of protection. After you lock a domain, it can be unlocked only by logging into the domain registrar’s website. You will need to unlock the domain first from “My Accounts” before initiating domain transfer process. Therefore, a hijacker can do no harm in this case. After locking your domains, they will never be transferred to different registrars without your permission. Most domain registrars are offering domain locking as a free service.