Stop hijackers of your domain

What would you do if one day you arrive at work, click on your company’s website and discover it’s been replaced by unsavory messaging?

That happened to a Wyoming Better Business Bureau-accredited business some years back, and it continues to happen on a regular basis across the United States and globally.

It’s called domain hijacking, and it works like this: A company fails to register its domain name before it expires. When the registration expires, another entity steps in and purchases it and holds the domain name ransom, demanding payment of thousands of dollars in order to return it. Often the hijacker starts redirecting it to its own websites and even redirects traffic to explicit websites, both for shock value and for profit.

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Online interactions are a vital part of today’s business blueprint and domain hijacking, along with other cybersecurity threats, are both time-consuming and costly. According to the National Cyber Security Alliance’s 2012 National Small Business Study, 66 percent of businesses state that their product or service depends on the Internet for day-to-day operations; 38 percent characterize it as very dependent, and 67 percent say they have become more dependent on the Internet in the past 12 months.

The study also indicates that only 52 percent have a plan or strategic approach in place for keeping their businesses cyber secure.

Keeping your business presence strong and secure online is critical to protecting your company’s good name. Your BBB recommends:

Keep your website’s registration up to date. Keep track of your domain names’ expiration dates and keep your contact information and that of the website domain company, web host and web developer handy at all times. Most registrars no longer send out renewal notices via snail mail. This means that if your email address is not current, you will not receive renewal notices, nor will you receive notices about potential domain deletions.

Be careful when using free email addresses. Many free email services automatically suspend or delete your account if you do not log in frequently enough, according to Better-Whois.com. Once your email account is deleted, a domain hijacker can sign up for your same email address and use it to give permission to transfer your domains.

Monitor your website and other websites with names or spellings similar to your business. Be alert to unanticipated dips or spikes in website visits.

Consider placing a registrar lock on your domain. This will lock your domain record at the registry level and prevent it from being transferred, modified or deleted by a third party.

Pam King is president and chief executive of the Better Business Bureau Serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming.