Once you have registered your business domain, it would give you a feeling of accomplishment. However, you don’t get the technical ownership of a domain by simply registering it. You merely register the domain and there are chances that the domain gets stolen. Even if you would not give a great deal of attention on domain hijacking, but it is an immense threat. Such hijacks trigger frustration.
Even if you are letting the registration of the web domain to get void, it is possible that you lose the control over your domain. It turns a daunting and extravagant task to regain the lost control.
How hijackers hijack internet domain?
Domain hijackers can make you pay an expensive toll of the weaknesses and loopholes in security practice. The technical process is excessively lengthy; however, the hijackers eventually taste success in implementing those intricate actions. They pretend as you before the registrar.
Hence, on good faith, the registrar transfers the domain to some account, controlled by the hackers. Typically, such account would lie with different registrar from a foreign country.
Contact your domain registrar on war footing basis
If you even find that your domain has been hijacked, you require contacting your registrar on an immediate basis. In a majority of the cases, the web host and the registrar are the same party. In such instances, it is advised that you contact the web host immediately.
If you are unaware of your registrar, seek for the party at InterNic.net. Refer to the field marked as registrar/Sponsoring registrar. This way, you can find out your domain registrar easily. You will also get the contact number of the domain registrar there.
You need to call up the registrar and describe that your domain has got transferred without your prior consent. The registrar might ask you to go through some paperwork or ask for some information to prove that the transfer was against your will and it was an act of fraudulence. If the registrar finds your claim authentic, it will bring back the domain under your control. In case the hijacker transfers the domain to another registrar, your registrar will collaborate with the concerned party for resolving the issue and bringing back the control of the domain to your hands.
The ICANN Conflict resolution process
Don’t expect your registrar to resolve the issue of domain hijacking of its own. In case you fail to back your claim with adequate evidence, your registrar may not even entertain your complaint and cooperate for the recovery of the domain. In such instance, you might consider availing legal assistance and register a lawsuit.
However, before getting into the legal process, pay a visit to the Internet Corporation’s website. You will get the assigned names as well as respective phone numbers there. You should go in between the lines of the literature of dispute resolution, provided on the website.
Subsequently, you will require hiring an advocate and pay lump sum amount of money to your advocate as well as ICANN for processing and resolving the dispute, regaining your control over the hijacked domain. However, this is a time-consuming and expensive process.
Hence, in the majority of the cases, individuals and organizations prefer to register a new web domain and advising their customers and/or audience about the new domain.
How to prevent a domain from threats of hijacks?
Prevention of the domain from threats of hijack is the simplest way to recover it. Experts suggest that you can safeguard your domain if you adhere to some simple practices. Following the key points in this regard:
- You should register your domain with reputable services providers, having ICANN approval.
- In case you find that your registrar is not approved and authorized by ICANN, transfer the domain to a registrar that has the necessary approval.
- Don’t hang around with a service provider if you ever have doubts about its integrity.
- Secure your access credentials. Refrain from picking easy passwords. Neither should you share the password with parties whatsoever.
- Retain the email address, used for registering the domain. If that email id expires, it becomes easy picking for the hijackers to hijack your domain.
- Maintain the domain registration. You should never let your domain to expire. If your domain expires, anyone can register your domain legitimately. Once it happens, it is impossible to regain your control on the domain.
- You can even consider locking the domain. The majority of the domain registrars are allowing such services that will nullify any chances of domain getting hijacked.
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