Webhosting & Hosting Reviews

Nitin Agarwal

Question: How do I avoid the hassle of domain hijacking?

Answer: Your Internet domain name is one of the most important yet least expensive parts of your business. You don’t realize its value until your Web site is down because your domain name was hijacked. It takes days if not months to get things reverted back in any hijacking incident, and often the original owner isn’t able to regain ownership of the domain name.

Domain hijacking can be achieved in two ways. The simplest method is by obtaining your domain name’s username and password.

With this login information, the hijacker can gain online access to manage your domain and can easily authorize an ownership change. For this reason, keep your login information very safe.

The other common hijacking method is via the domain name registrars transfer process. To transfer your domain name to another registrars, you must accept the transfer via the administrative e-mail listed in your domain name’s “whois” record. A “whois” record is a public copy of a domain name’s ownership information posted by your current registrar. Some registrars don’t do due diligence before proceeding with a transfer request, which could cause the transfer to take place, especially if someone has access to your e-mail address.

Locking domain vital

The best thing you can do to prevent your domain from hijacking via transfers is to “lock” it with your registrar. Domain locking prevents domain transfers to other registrars until you unlock it with your registrar.

Having invalid or outdated contact information listed for a domain name is often a reason for hijacking because you aren’t aware of the changes being made to your domain. Your registrar will contact you via e-mail regarding any changes or issues with your domain name. So, a big step you can take toward preventing domain hijacking is to ensure you keep your domain name’s contact information, specifically your e-mail address, current.

Nitin Agarwal is the president and chief developer of Nitin Networks in Fishkill. Established in 1999, the firm offers a variety of Web services including RegisterSite.com for domain registration.