Wednesday 5 June 2013

How to stop valuable domain names from being stolen




stolen your domain name
Stolen domain name
In the internet age, an organisation's domain name is its public face. The consequences of losing a domain name for even a short period of time can be disastrous. This can mean that the public cannot access the business' website which can have dire repercussions. Furthermore, it may mean that all the organisation's e-mails may be lost too. In this scenario, not only is the website inaccessible, the principal mode of communication is cut off immediately.

In a recent case, a client had their domain name hijacked by a former employee who at his time of employment with the client's company was responsible for the technical side of the business.

The former employee stole the company's domain name and then went on to create a new website which carried his former employer's stolen domain name address.

Having blocked control by the former employer to the domain name control panel, he diverted all the company's emails to his new entity so he was now sending and receiving emails on the company's behalf.

Eventually the matter was successfully resolved but at great costs to the victim company both in money and reputation.

This situation could have been averted had the company took simple steps to protect their domain name from being hijacked.

For the non-technically minded company directors, a suitable solution would have been to deposit the company's domain control panel account with Cohen Davis' Secure Domain Mandate. This will allow changes to be made to the domain name only with the signed approval of two or more directors of the company.

The way this works is very similar to the way that a bank mandate operates. The director creates  specimen signatures that are kept with the solicitor's firm who will only allow changes to the registered domain name ownership, to be made by the authorised directors, whose names and signatures were placed on file.

To learn more about Secure Domain Mandate visit Cohen Davis solicitor's Domain Law website

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