A domain name is often one of a company’s most valuable assets, yet businesses often do little to prevent the domain being hijacked.CIO recently published an article on the practice that they note is becoming more prevalent and one that IT leaders need to understand so they can protect their companies from the damages domain hijacking wreaks.Domain name hijacking is serious, Ram Mohan, CTO of domain registrar Afilias told CIO, because it puts sensitive corporate information at risk. It compromises all of the normal ways by which confidential information is shared by giving the hacker access to all of the company’s incoming email.Lars Harvey, CEO of Internet Identity, and Mohan told CIO that domain hijacks are growing more prevalent because they’re so damaging, because so much commerce is moving online and because they can be so easy to execute.Some of the examples of how domain name hijacking can be a serious problem for a business outlined in the article include how:
in 2008 hackers hijacked CheckFree.com redirecting traffic to a website in the Ukraine that downloaded malware on CheckFree customers’ computers. (The malware was designed to steal usernames and passwords.)Hackers are known to exploit weak links such as companies not using the latest security updates, using simple passwords, allowing unlimited password attempts when logging inIn the article, CIO give four tips on how to prevent domain name hijacking including picking a registrar with high levels of security protections, keeping up to date with security patches, monitoring where site traffic is going and requesting DNSSEC from your registrar.To read the CIO article in full, see:
www.cio.com/article/699206/4_Ways_to_Prevent_Domain_Name_Hijacking_