You probably are not aware of the importance your domain holds and why it requires protection. The following article will give you complete insights on how one can protect it.
If you are highly protective of a precious possession, especially if you have spent a fortune on it; you will perform probably ever precaution to save it from falling into the hands of a spiteful person. However, this attitude changes when it comes to intangible assets as people tend to be more ignorant about assets they can’t see or touch physically. But things take a toll when they start facing serious consequences of this ignorance.
One such important intangible asset to your organization or business is a domain name. You can see an example of what it is like in this article.
In the following article, we have a detailed discussion as to what a domain name is and how it is important to any organization or business. Also, why its protection is necessary and steps one can follow to protect it. A set of important facts and figures will give you a clearer insight as to how important a domain and its protection is.
What is domain and why is it important?
All your targeted customers mostly turn towards a quick web search to know more about your organization or product. As you can attract several customers and audiences through your webpage, it is important to have the right brand name for a lasting image through a market point of view.
Having a right, easy and attractive domain name will give your organization or product a strong online presence. As it stands as a very important marketing tool, the decision of choosing it should not be made in haste and should be a very careful and patient decision. Here is why having a domain name is important.
People always turn towards websites that sounds credible and genuine. Having a strong and unique domain name will make your organization look more professional and genuine so that more and more targeted audience is attracted towards it.
It is also seen that people are very much into window shopping and a lot of them decide which shop to enter just by look at the name and storefront window. In the same way, people also decide which website to enter just by looking at an attractive domain name.
If you are planning to move your business by relocating it into a new country or by moving to an in-house service, you don’t have to fret about changing your web hosting server as domain helps you with mobility and you can continue building your brand without starting from the scratch.
Unlike other marketing tools of traditional marketing, a domain name never expires. It will create and maintain the reputation of your organization and help you claim your territory online.
Why domain name protection is important?
After having a clear understanding of why having a domain name is important for any organization and how valuable asset it is; we shall now see what are the potential threats one’s domain can face and why its protection is very important.
Your domain is meant to be your personal space and all the data you upload in it meant to stay private. However, once your domain gets registered all your data gets available publicly on various sources. Therefore, to save it from such breach of privacy, it is important to get your domain protected.
When someone decides not to get their domain protected, it’s like publicly announcing all the personal and sensitive data on the internet at the public database and it can be easily misused, leading to irreversible damage to you and your organization.
When the domain name is left unprotected and your personal information is easily accessible, you might get bombarded with fake calls, spammers and even worse phishers. When these pushy marketers can easily get to you, all your devices including mobile and e-mails will get filled with spam messages and emails and you may end up purchasing things you don’t even want.
Just like building a house brick by brick takes a truckload of efforts, time and investment; building a website is likewise a tasking job but also an imperative part of your priceless organization. A small loophole in the security of your home can put all your treasure into danger; the same is the case with domains. When they are not protected they can fall prey to hacking. The hackers may break into your domain and rename it as their own without your consent.
How to protect your domain?
Register with a reputable registrar
With an increase in the number of domain
registrar names in industry, you are left with many options to choose as to whom you want to register your domain name with. In such a case, you must always opt for the reputable one, have been in the business for a long time, offers good customer service and most importantly located in your country.
Using a strong registrar password
Protecting and using your registrar password should be done as diligently as you are with your bank account and other documents and websites carrying sensitive information. This is because falling of your password in the wrong hands may result in similar irreversible consequences. Failing to protect your registrar password may allow someone else to get access to your domain and he may transfer all your data before you could even realize it.
Renewal of domain name
Failing of renewal of domain name may lead to lapsing of it. Therefore, one must renew it for the longest possible period so that you don’t have to stay at the risk of forgetting or failing to renew it. One might also choose the “auto-renew” option of the registrar company and find domain registrar name where the renewal takes place automatically.
Conclusion
We become very prudent when it comes to the protection of valuables like house keys, bank account details, passwords of important websites, etc. But ironically people often become negligent on part of the most important asset of the organization, domain name. The protection of domain name is equally important as holds the title of the most effective marketing tool.
It can be hence concluded from the above piece of article as to why and how the protection of domain can be done. So before it gets too late, contact your registrar now and get it protected soon!
TIKAJ’s Domain name monitoring service will help secure your intangible treasure.
Frequently asked questions
What is domain hijacking and how does it happen?
Domain hijacking is an attacker taking control of your domain registration, usually without touching your website at all. The common routes are a compromised registrar account, a password reset sent to an email address the attacker already controls, social engineering of registrar support staff, and a registration nobody renewed. Because control of the domain means control of your email and DNS, a hijack lets an attacker read mail, issue certificates in your name and redirect visitors, which is why it is treated as a critical incident rather than a website problem.
What is a registrar lock, and should I turn it on?
A registrar lock sets status codes such as clientTransferProhibited and clientUpdateProhibited on your domain, which stop it being transferred away or having its nameservers changed until the lock is deliberately lifted. It is free, takes a minute, and blocks the single most damaging step of a hijack. Turn it on for every domain you own, and keep it on for the ones you are not actively migrating. Registry lock, offered for high-value domains, goes further by requiring manual verification with the registry itself.
What happens if my domain name expires?
Expiry is not immediate loss, but the window is shorter than most people expect. After the expiry date the domain typically enters a grace period of up to 30 days where you can renew at the normal price, then a redemption period of around 30 days where renewal carries a substantial fee, and finally a short pending-delete phase before it is released to the public. Drop-catching services monitor exactly this timeline, so a lapsed domain with existing traffic is often registered within seconds of becoming available.
How is domain name protection different from trademark registration?
A trademark gives you a legal basis to act against someone abusing your brand. Domain name protection is the operational work of making sure there is less to act against: locking and monitoring the domains you own, watching for lookalike registrations, and removing the ones being used against you. The two work together, because a trademark is what makes a UDRP or INDRP dispute winnable, but it does not stop a lookalike domain being registered or shorten how long it stays up.
How do I find out if someone has registered a lookalike domain?
Newly registered domains appear in zone files and in certificate transparency logs, usually within hours of the first certificate being issued, which is well before any phishing mail goes out. Monitoring those sources for typosquats, homoglyphs, added keywords such as login or secure, and alternative extensions of your brand gives you the registration while it is still being set up. Finding a lookalike on the day it is registered rather than the day it starts sending is the difference between a takedown that lands before any customer sees it and one that runs after the fact.