What Is Domain Name Hijacking?

How To Protect Yourself

What would you do if someone started going around with your name? If they passed themselves off as you – trading on your reputation? It wouldn’t be nice, would it? It might sound like the plot of a film or the stuff of nightmares, yet this can be a concern for businesses in the digital era.

Your domain name is the combination of words people type in to be able to access your website. To all intents and purpose, it IS your name. So it matters quite a lot to be able to keep hold of it.

Yet domain name hijacking is a very real risk. This is the process by which someone switches the registration of your domain, leaving you stripped of control of your name.

Clearly, that would cause you big problems, cutting the business you can do from your site and associated email addresses. So, what can you do to try to protect yourself against this scenario?

Choose Wisely

You need to consider your domain carefully. You need to select a web address that no-one else has, clearly, but during your domain registration process you can also snap up similar domain names to stop the potential for copycat sites. This won’t necessarily stop hijacking, but it might end any doubt over the ownership of your domain registration, which could help to stave off the possibility of issues here.

Take Security Seriously

Anything worth keeping hold of is worth protecting – and that stands for your domain name too. This means you need to call upon the services of some robust security software – and ensure that the hosting company that you use has the level of technical support that gives you confidence. Keep your security software up to date at all times and see if your registrar will allow you to ‘lock’ your domain.

Be Aware Of Scams

All businesses have to be aware of scam emails – and this is a particular problem when it comes to domain hijacking. Unscrupulous operators will try to trick you into getting access to your domain by posing as someone from your registrar – or might even approach you trying to sell you an extra domain registration that you don’t actually need. Learn more about the way these people operate and you’ll be able to avoid falling foul of their techniques. You also need to ensure other people in your business know about this. You only need one person to succumb and your defences might be compromised.

Don’t Be Bullied

Sometimes people will try to buy your domain from you if they want to take the registration, but other people might try to be more sly and force it from your grasp. The act of reverse domain name hijacking (RDNH) involves challenging someone’s ownership of a domain name by falsely claiming that it shouldn’t belong to them. When faced with such a challenge, many people feel intimidated into backing down and losing their registration.