Protecting Your Domain Name

Your domain name's settings control many of its uses from your email to accessibility to your website. Here are some tips to help you prevent unauthorized changes to your domain name's settings.

Correct Registration

Keep your domain name's contact information current. A domain name is like a car - the name on the title determines who registered it, not the person who paid for it. In the domain name world, the Whois database contact information is the title. Make sure:

You enter correct and valid information in the registrant, administrative, technical, and billing contact fields.
The listed registrant is the exact person or entity you want to have legal rights over the domain name.
You have a valid business license for the listed company and a government-issued photo ID for the person listed as the registrant. That way, if you do lose access to your account or domain name, you can validate registration of the domain name in the future.

Administrative Email Address

The administrative contact email address has the authority to approve a transfer of the domain name to another registrar. Do not allow the email address to become outdated or expire because this allows someone else to sign up for the email address, providing easy access to the account and domain name.

Login Regularly

Be vigilant: Regularly log in to your customer account and make sure your account and domain name contacts are correct. To help keep track of your domain name, you might consider purchasing Domain Monitoring. This service alerts you via email when your domain name's settings change.

Lock Your Domain Name

To prevent unauthorized transfers to another registrar, lock your domain name from within your account. To help prevent your domain name from being moved out of your account, consider purchasing Protected Registration. Your domain name can be upgraded to add this enhancement. See Adding Deluxe or Protected Registration to Your Domain Names for more information.

Secure Email

Keeping your email secure is key to keeping your domain name safe. Remember the following:

Use a secure email address. Free email accounts might be easy targets for unauthorized access.
Create your password using a complex series of letters, numbers, and symbols.
Change your password frequently to deter possible hackers intending to steal your domain name.

Antivirus/Spyware

To prevent key-logging software from capturing your user names and passwords and delivering your information to unauthorized persons, install antivirus/spyware software. Update your antivirus/spyware software periodically.

Be a Human Firewall

DO NOT give your customer account login, password, credit card, or shopper PIN information to anyone, including your webmaster. Webmasters NEVER need direct access to your domain name. They need access to your hosting account login and password. Use the Account Administrator feature of your account to grant access levels to others who need to manage domain names in your account. Managing Domain Name Account Administrators explains the assignment process.