Your company domain name is likely a critical component of your business. Imagine how you would feel if you have your domain name printed on all of your corporate materials - brochures, business cards, any published ads, and possibly even your vehicle - and you woke up one morning to discover that it had been taken over by another company.

If that were to happen anyone visiting the website listed in your materials might be directed to a website containing embedded viruses, pornography or worse yet - your competitor's website! Sound like a nightmare? It could happen to you if you don't "lock" your domain name.

Background: How Domain Name Registrations Work
The .com, .net or .org domain name - for example canadaone.com - are registered through a Registrar and all Registrars then have their domain name registrations processed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

ICANN is an international non-profit organization that administers all .com, .net, and .org domain names and the directory of associated IP addresses. ICANN does not provide services to the public directly, they work through a network of accredited resellers. There are currently 373 Registrars listed on the ICANN website, and many of these have another layer of resellers themselves.

Changes to the Domain Administration System
Until recently if you wanted to move or change information for a .com, .net or .org domain you had to do so by responding to an email. An automated process triggered an email to the email address listed for the owner or administrator of the domain that the change was requested for. To finalize the change the person or company needed to reply to that email - no reply meant that the request was not processed.

However, many organizations lost their original email address, usually because they had changed service providers or had let a free email account expire. This made it extremely difficult for them to update their domain records.

As a result ICANN has introduced a new process that will make it easier for domains to be moved from one registrar to another. Now when a domain name change request is made, for example moving the domain to a new server, ICANN will send an email to the owner of the domain.

What has changed is that with the new system you must respond to that email within 5 days or the change request will automatically be processed.

In essence, you have 5 days to prevent a change request, such as a domain name transfer request, from taking place.

This won't be an issue when the request comes from your organization. However, if someone tries to take over your domain name this could be a very serious issue. It is now much easier for an unscrupulous vendor to seize control of your website address without your permission.

And with volumne of spam, junk mail filters, and normal things like vacations it is not difficult to imagine a change request being missed in the 5 day timeframe.

Opponents of the new policy have compared it to this scenario: You go away on holiday for ten days, and a moving company leaves you a voicemail saying someone has asked to move all your stuff. After five days, the moving company shows up and empties out your house and takes all your belongings away without your knowledge or permission, simply because you weren't there to answer the voicemail within five days.

Lock Your Domain Names Now
There are locks for houses that will help keep burglars out, and there are also locks available for domain names.

Most registrars now support "domain locking" where a domain cannot be altered or moved unless it is first unlocked by yourself or your authorized representative.

ICANN has placed the responsibility of identifying requesters and confirming the validity of requests on the registrar. You can expect registrars to think twice before transferring a domain without first getting confirmation / approval from the current domain owner or administrative responsible for the domain, as this can cause a Registrar to lose their accreditation. Nonetheless, it is now possible for your domain to be transferred somewhere else without you actually approving it - as long as a registrar allows it.

More information: http://www.icann.org/transfers/
The full policy: http://www.icann.org/transfers/policy-12jul04.htm

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