How To Secure A Domain Name

What Are The Common Causes Of Brand Domain Name Loss

There are several reasons why you lost your brand domain name, with the most common ones being:

As we discussed earlier, domain name theft is the most common cause. However, failing to renew the domain name or providing inaccurate contact information to the registrar is also most common.

Lets discuss each of the causes in detail.

The common causes of brand domain name loss

Create A Strong Password

You should use a very strong password to protect your website domain. It is recommending to you that never use an easy password for your domain registrar account.

We are using very simple password to remember in our memory like as date of birth, mobile no, employee id, and 123456, which is one of the vital risk to your domain names security.

So, create a strong password for your registrar account and change them on a regular basis .

• The password length should at least 10 characters long.
• The password must have uppercase letters , lowercase letters , numbers , and special character , & , *!).
• is a strong password and standard password

Learn More about How to create a strong password?

How To Secure Your Website Url

Domain security is vital not only for yourself but also for those who visit your website. People are aware of the risk of cyber-attacks. They are worried when opening websites to avoid becoming victims of hacking.

Some domain owners do not employ strict security measures when developing their website security policies. Unfortunately, poor domain management can result in irrevocable damage and a poor reputation for your business.

A hacker can alter the accessibility setting of your website if they can access your domain name control panel. Losing the domain name of your website can bring your business to a standstill. You can take several measures to safeguard your domain name from loss or theft

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Use A Domain Transfer Lock

A domain transfer or registry lock ensures no one can transfer your domain name to another registrar, either accidentally or deliberately. How does it work? At your request, a registrar can put a transfer lock in place so that any requests to transfer to another domain registrar get automatically rejected. Depending on your registrars options, this locks your domain name to that registrar and protects your name against domain hijackers. Normally, registrars allow you to transfer to another account if they also use the same company. But check with your registrar first for policy and procedure specifics.

How To Recover Stolen Or Hijacked Brand Domain Names

If your domain names have been hijacked or stolen, the first step you should take is to contact your respective domain registrar. Explain the support team about the entire situation. You will have to complete any required paperwork and provide the relevant details about your stolen domains. If the name has already been transferred to another domain registrar , the registrar itself is of no help. Hence, there is no other way to recover your stolen domain than getting legal help.

Recovering by getting legal help

The only entity that can help you in this situation is ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. It is a non-profit organization that coordinates the procedures and maintenance of numerous databases related to the numerical spaces and namespaces of the internet. Without this coordination, we would not have one global internet.

When you approach ICANN, as usual, they will ask you several questions, including whether you have contacted your domain registrar, hosting provider, and even law enforcement. You will have to prove or demonstrate that the domain that was stolen or hijacked is rightfully yours.

Unfortunately, many victims who contact ICANN fail to prove that the stolen brand domain is theirs to use.

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What Ssl And Tls Are

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and its the authentication protocol that encrypts the information between client and server.

A browser sends a request to the server and first checks the SSL certificate validation. If the certificate is valid, the browser uses the public key from the website to encrypt the data it needs to send.

When the data goes back to the server, its decrypted using the public key and its own private key. After that data exchange, both locations can communicate safely.

In 1999, TLS came out as the new protocol with better security to work with SSL. The two frequently get referred to together as SSL/TLS.

While it sounds complicated, the process is essentially a secure exchange of information over the internet.

How To Register A Domain Name: 4 Options

• Using Bluehost web hosting

To get a domain name, youll need to call dibs with ICANN. ICANN is a global non-profit authority that maintains records on which domain and IP address belongs to whom and manages access to them.

But ICANN doesnt provide registration services, it only maintains records. Thats where domain name registrars come into play.

The primary role of a register is to:

• Coordinate claims on different domain names.
• Match specific domain names with Domain Name System nameservers.
• Ensure that there are no duplicate domain names.

Technically speaking, you are not buying a domain name from a registrar company, but reserve its usage for a specified time. You can pay to reserve a domain for 1-10 years at a time, depending on the registrar. After your initial subscription expires, youll need to renew it and pay a fee again. You can re-purchase your domain name over and over again.

When registering a domain name, you sign a long-term lease of your domain . You can read more about the domain costs here.

In practice, all of the above is much simpler than you think as we will show below.

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Can I Own My Domain Name

You may not be the legal owner. Whoever is the legal owner of your domain name, that person has total control over it including what Web site it points to, what domain name registrar maintains it, changing information about your domain name account, controlling who administers it, and being able to sell it.

What Are Domain Name Extensions

You can choose among popular top-level domain extensions such as:

• .com
• .org
• .net

Or go with a local domain extension such as if you want to focus on building a presence in a specific country:

• .co.uk
• .fr
• .au

Also, theres a bunch of creative domain extensions, launched recently. You can try playing around with them to create a shorter, brandable name. For example:

• Alchemi.st
• Handma.de

Read Also: Do You Need A Domain Name For A Website

How To Protect Your Domain Name

You have invested the time and money to have a great website that generates revenue for your business. Your domain name has become your brand online and its one of your business most valuable asset. But are you doing everything you can to protect your domain name? There are a number of common mistakes that can result in the permanent lost of your domain name.

In this article, we will explain the most common reasons why domain names are lost and show you how to protect your domain name.

How To Register Your Website’s Domain Name

The first domain name in history was Symbolics.com, which was registered on March 15, 1985. Today, there are more than 300 million domain names, with millions more added each year. A domain name is essentially the address that visitors will type into their browser address bar to arrive at your website.

Domain names allow users to easily connect to other computer IP addresses by typing in an address like “Google.com” instead of Google’s numerical IP address of “74.125.239.116.” In other words, domain names make our lives a lot easier.

Your domain name is an important part of establishing your brand. No two domain names can be exactly alike, although they can be similar. Ideally, your domain name will be unique and distinctive, so users don’t confuse it with other domain names or different businesses.

You might be wondering isn’t a domain name, then, simply a website? Although they are similar, domain names and websites have important differences. Your domain name is the address for your website it is what people use to find your website, which consists of pages, images, and other files.

Choosing and registering a domain name is often the first step when building a website. Read on to learn how to register a domain name.

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Authenticating Nxdomain Responses And Nsec

Cryptographically proving the absence of a domain requires signing the response to every query for a non-existent domain. This is not a problem for online signing servers, which keep their keys available online. However, DNSSEC was designed around using offline computers to sign records so that zone-signing-keys could be kept in cold storage. This represents a problem when trying to authenticate responses to queries for non-existent domains since it is impossible to pre-generate a response to every possible hostname query.

The initial solution was to create NSEC records for every pair of domains in a zone. Thus if a client queried for a record at the non-existent k.example.com, the server would respond with an NSEC record stating that nothing exists between a.example.com and z.example.com. However, this leaks more information about the zone than traditional unauthenticated NXDOMAIN errors because it exposes the existence of real domains.

The NSEC3 records were created as an alternative which hashes the name instead of listing them directly. Over time, advancements in hashing using GPUs and dedicated hardware meant that NSEC3 responses could be cheaply brute forced using offline dictionary attacks. NSEC5 has been proposed to allow authoritative servers to sign NSEC responses without having to keep a private key that can be used to modify the zone. Thus stealing an NSEC5KEY would only result in the ability to more easily enumerate a zone.

What Do You Do If Someone Owns Your Domain Name

What to Do If the Domain Name You Want Is Taken

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Select A Reputable Domain Name Registrar

How to secure a website domain? First, you have to select a reputable Domain Name Registrar who has significant market experience and can guarantee maximum stability of your domain name. If you want to secure your website domain then you have to select a reliable domain name registrar. Here are some best domain name registrar where you can register and purchase your domain names:

Check The Zone Transfer Status Is Not Open

An open zone transfer status allows anyone on the internet to download all domain name server records.

Make sure the zone transfer status is closed on all of your name servers. This will protect your domain records from being downloaded and used to identify and exploit vulnerabilities.

To check your AXFR status you should:

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Without A Web Hosting Service

If youre not using a web hosting service or want to purchase a domain separately, dont worry. You can still secure the perfect domain without a web hosting service-or doing it independently.

In this case, you have plenty of options to choose from. There are dozens of different domain registrars out there that you can use.

Pick the registrar you want to use. Then enter your desired domain name and extension. If its available, you can pick your combination and complete the checkout.

Web Hosts And Domain Names

You needn’t go to a dedicated registration service to buy a domain name, though. The best web hosting services, such as DreamHost, HostGator, and Hostwinds routinely offer a registration mechanism as part of the sign-up process. Hosting services typically offer a free domain name when you sign up for a web hosting package.

Keep in mind, however, that free domain names are usually free only for one or two years, after which the registrar will bill you for the annual or biennial fee. In other words, the provider of the free domain name pays only for the first billing from the registrar. Also take note of whether or not the provider charges a fee for setting up a domain name. Most services offer to transfer an existing domain name to their servers at no cost, but sometimes you’ll find a setup fee over and above the registrar’s fee.

Please note that not all web hosts give you the option to register a domain name. Cloudways, for example, is a solid web host that requires you to purchase a domain name from elsewhere.

Registrars offer a wide variety of registration durationsone year, three, five, and even ten. Be careful about registering for more than a year, though. First, there might be restrictions on your ability to transfer the domain name should the registrar give poor service. Second, the registrar could go out of business, leaving your domain name without a host. Check the policies closely.

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Choose A Solid Password

Poor password choice remains a top data security threat. Never select an easy password for use with your registrar account. Easy-to-guess passwords like continuous number sequences, your birthday, or your childs names pose a great risk to your domain names security. Generate a password that has a least one numeric value, one symbol and at least two randomly selected letters, so that guessing it becomes next to impossible.

Who Needs A Domain Name

Everyone, every business, every entity that aims to build a brand online needs a domain name. A domain name is the best way to have a truly unique identity on the web and stand out effectively from the massive crowd. An example of a domain name is web4africa.ng in this case, the Nigerian website address of the web hosting company Web4Africa.

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Make Sure Your Domains Are Registry Locked

Most organisations have a change control process to prevent unauthorised changes to domains. However this does not prevent changes being made by:

• current or former staff in your organisation with the right credentials
• compromise at your registrar

Your public sector organisation can sign up to the free Registry Lock service provided by the Central Digital and Data Office to protect your domain from unauthorised changes to critical data. This sign-up process takes 5 minutes.

Note: Registry Lock will not affect your day-to-day Domain Name Service management and only works for .gov.uk domains. For other domains you should check with your registrar.

Your IT provider cannot sign up to Registry Lock service on your behalf. The Domain Name Administrator must sign up to the service.

The Registry Lock service will:

• prevent changes to your domain records and contact details in the .gov.uk registry, until they are verified by an authorised team in your organisation
• notify other nominated roles when changes to these records are made

The service will check any changes to the .gov.uk zone file for your domain as well as your contact details held at the registry. The zone file will generally just contain your name server records but can occasionally include other records as well. It will not prevent changes to individual DNS records like A, MX and TXT held with your registrar.