by Morgan Linton

Created on: May 20, 2009

Domain name security is an essential topic for anyone owning a domain or portfolio of domain names. Over the past few years hackers have developed more ways to compromise domains and thus steal a domain name from its rightful owner. Most of the domains that are stolen are taken as a result of known security precautions that were not taken by the domain owner. By reading this article you will understand exactly how to protect your domain names so that you do not become a victim of

domain theft.

The first step to securing your domain name is understanding how a domain is transferred from your registrar account. In order to transfer a domain it must first be unlocked. Once unlocked the person that wishes to transfer the domain what is known as the "domain secret" or "domain auth code" which will be required by the receiving registrar. The most important step in the domain transfer process is email address verification. An email will be sent to the email that is listed as the admin contact on the domain registration record. Once this email is received by the admin contact, the domain is unlocked, and the auth code is obtained then the domain can be transferred to a different registrar and contact information changed.

As you can see it seems like a fairly complex process, however there is one point of failure in the whole system and that is the email address. If anyone has access to the email address that you have used to register your domain this could allow them to obtain all of the other information required to transfer the domain and change the contact details. This is because in most cases this email address is the same address you use with your registrar. Thus, if a hacker has access to this email address they can simply click on the "Forgot Password" button in the given domain registrar and now login to your registrar account. Once in your account they can unlock the domain and obtain the auth code.

So the best way to keep your domains safe is to protect your email address. This means that you shouldn't be using a service like GMail or Yahoo Mail as the contact email address for your domains. These domains are easily compromised and one of the largest target to identity and domain thieves.

Next, you'll want to keep your email address that you use for your registrar to be different from your admin contact email address. That way, if someone does get your admin email address they cannot login to your registrar account and unlock your domain and get the

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>