Domain Control - Do not Let Your Domain Name Get stolen, lost or Hijacked

Considerations on the property

For companies and other organizations, the rule must always be registered in the name of the organization, and system administration (registrant) e-mail must be to an officer or owner.

An organization's domain name must always be registered to that specific organization, as the registrant of the domain name primarily controls the use of the domain name.

You may be tempted to pass control of your domain to the technical staff of the company so that the owner should not be bothered with the management of renewal notices, etc. This practice is actually very common.

If a host or developer is the registrant of a domain, the organization may be essentially "locked" to that hosting services provider. This can be a problem if the organization wants to point the domain name to another department, and the registrant does not respond or does not want to relinquish control of the domain name.

Preventing the loss of your domain name

This happens more often than you might think. A trusted employee of a registered domain name and use their contact information to register. For whatever reason, leave the company, the domain expires, and the rightful owner is not only not discover until it has already expired, but failed to reach the former employee to obtain the login information. Or worse, the cessation of the employment relationship was not so kind, and the former employee to withhold it out of spite.

It happens.

No matter how busy you are, register the domain yourself or make sure that the administrative contact is an officer of the company name and email address.

The domain name was hijacked?

If the damage is already done, you need to collect a couple of things together. For example, statutes, or other proof of ownership.

Other registrars may be different, but for Tucows, you need to fax the articles of incorporation (or similar) and an enlarged photocopy of driver's license or photo ID and contact information to a special fax number. They will then change the e-mail to Administrative specified e-mail and send the log to this address.

You can then access and edit your administrative information.

Also in this case, the registrar may have a slightly different procedure. Just be prepared to prove who you are and you have the appropriate legal authorities.

One last word

Always try to be aware of your domain name registration. It 'so easy to forget because they can be stored for years at a time. If you change your e-mail, try to remember to update your email address to register to receive renewal notices in time to avoid lapse of the web service and the potential loss of business.