Why You Need To Add ?Protect Domain Name? To The Security Checklist

Domain name hijacking broadly refers to acts where a registered domain name is misused or stolen from the rightful name holder. A domain hijacking is a security risk many organizations overlook when they develop security policy and business continuity plans. While name holders can take measures to protect their domain names against theft and loss, many measures are not generally known.

How Serious Is Domain Hijacking?
The answer is best illustrated with examples. In one hijacking scenario, you begin the day as an e-merchant doing business online at 'www.onlineseller.example.com.' At 2:15 p.m. that afternoon, your visitor traffic and merchant transactions disappear. You investigate and discover someone’s impersonated your company’s administrative contact, transferred your domain name to a different registrar, and modified the DNS. Visitors to your domain name land at a hoax Web site that impersonates your virtual store. Improbable? It happened to Hushmail in April of this year.

In another scenario, the email service you provide to thousands of users suddenly stops. You discover someone’s transferred your domain name to another registrar without your notice or consent. Your DNS configuration has been modified, and your user’s email is being delivered to someone else’s mail server. Hours later, your registration is restored, but only after an exhausting and frustrating incident response effort. Preposterous? It happened to PANIX back in January, 2005.Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) CEO Paul Twomey says that while “a domain hijacking is not as obvious a threat as spam and spyware, it can be just as disruptive to the business and operations of name holders; in extreme cases, a domain hijacking can have a lasting impact on an organization."

It may seem implausible that the consequences could be so severe, but domain name holders attribute value to their domain names, both tangible and intangible.

Tangible value increases when consumers associate brand with a domain name (in a positive way). Intangible value increases in proportion to the reputation of a domain name: the domain name of a respected security consulting company is worth more than any financial compensation the company is likely to recover through legal means. Speculative value--the ability to “acquire” a desirable domain name and resell it--creates additional incentives for would-be hijackers, who are motivated by financial gain as well as notoriety.The threats are real, and include denial and theft of electronic mail services, identity theft, traffic inspection, web site defacement, loss of revenue and even irrecoverable loss of online business operations.

How To Protect Yourself
The Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) report from ICANN, Domain Name Hijacking: Incidents, Threats, Risks and Remedial Actions , describes measures all parties to the registration process can take to protect domain names. Name holders (“registrants”) have a number of measures at their disposal that can measurably reduce the likelihood of a domain hijacking:

Once you’ve locked your domain name, routinely check the Whois service to make certain it remains locked, and that your domain name information has not been modified without your knowledge and consent.Then you need to choose a registrar wisely. If you value your domain name, then services are a more important differentiator than price.

Look for registrars who are willing to provide you with more than the minimum registration and transfer services. If you run your operation 24 x 7, do you need a registrar that offers 24 x 7 technical support? Does the registrar issue a transfer pending notification as its standard practice? (Registrars are not obligated to do so.) Is the registrar willing to notify you of registration record changes and transfer requests using contact methods in addition to (and in parallel with) standard email notices? Will the registrar allow you to specify the contact methods that must be used (e.g., any or all contacts in the registration record, including, email, telephone, messaging and paging services, fax, etc.)? Will the registrar implement additional authentication and authorization measures to safeguard against removing your transfer lock or changing your domain name configuration?

Such measures are sometimes maligned as inhibiting name transfers, but some name holders are perfectly happy with the service and relationship they have with their registrars and want that relationship protected.Some of these services are likely to be offered by registrars as part of a basic service. New security services may also appear as registrars, registries and ICANN review and implement the recommendations of the SSAC Domain Name Hijacking report. Encourage registrars to offer domain name protection services. If name holders demonstrate a willingness to pay for registration and DNS configuration protection, registrars will be more likely to offer them.

A Collaborative Effort Needed
The PANIX and Hushmail incidents attracted international attention and prompted a lengthy investigation by ICANN's SSAC. After investigating other reported incidents, the SSAC produced a report , concluding that “domain name hijacking incidents are commonly the result of flaws in registration and related processes, failure to comply with the transfer policy, and poor administration of domain names by registrars, resellers, and registrants.”

Simply stated, if everyone involved in the name registration process were to try a bit harder, domain name hijacking would be much less a threat. As SSAC chairman Steve Crocker explained in a July, 2005 press release announcing the committee’s official report, “no single party to the registration process is wholly at fault for all hijacking incidents, and there is room for improvement in policies and processes across the board. Name holders have a responsibility to protect their domain names as they would any valuable asset.