The online world is becoming a more nefarious place every year, and cybersecurity threats abound in an ever-expanding digital landscape. The fact that you have a website and a domain name that are generating revenue for your business means that you need to invest in improving cybersecurity across the board in order to keep your business, your employees, and your customers safe. Keep in mind that it only takes one data breach to ruin your brand’s reputation, and that’s something you might not be able to recover from.
One of the most prevalent threats in the modern online world is domain name theft, or just unlawful entry into your domain account by hackers and scammers. If you want to keep your business safe in 2021, then you should implement the following security measures to protect your domain and avoid security threats down the road. Here’s what you can do right away.
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Use domain privacy and a registrar lock
To start, there are two settings you can activate to instantly elevate the security of your domain: the domain privacy feature, and the registrar lock. Both typically require you to pay a little extra with your domain host, but it’s a small price to pay for your peace of mind and ensuring the privacy of your domain data. Choosing domain privacy is the only way to prevent your name and other company information like your contact and address to be publicly available in online records.
Domain hijackers will scan records for this information in order to scam you or the host into transferring your domain. On the other hand, activating the registrar lock allows you to protect your domain by preventing hackers and scammers from making any changes to your domain information. It also prevents anyone from transferring your domain so long as the hackers do not have access to your account.
Set your domain contact information carefully
Only a handful of people should have access to your domain information, but preferably you would be the only person with access to the account. It’s also important to think carefully who you’re going to list in your domain contact information. Typically, you will only list yourself and your organization as the owners of the domain and its administrators.
That said, many business leaders will make the common mistake of including developers, web designers, or web masters, thus creating even more potential back doors into the account. Only list people you know you can trust, or better yet, refrain from listing anyone at all. If some tweaks need to be made, you can give the web master access to the account and then change the password once the job is done.
Choosing domain registrars with phishing and malware monitoring
It should go without saying that the best way to keep your domain name safe is to choose a registrar that employs the best security measures in the industry. Your registrar should do everything in its power to keep your domain information safe from theft and other malicious activity. Ideally, the registrar will conduct continuous phishing and malware monitoring to achieve this goal.
This is something that the popular .me domain has become known for in recent years, for example, as the need to monitor all traffic for potential threats has grown significantly in recent years. This provides a continuous, real-time monitoring system that alerts to any threats and allows you to act quickly, so make sure to choose a registrar that provides domain monitoring against phishing and malware.
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Leverage DNSSEC to boost domain name security
DNSSEC, or Domain Name System Security Extensions, is a security measure that authenticates and secures communications between different DNS servers. Because DNS attacks are becoming more prevalent with each passing year, it’s important to prevent hackers from redirecting website visitors to spammy websites and malicious online platforms. You can leverage DNSEEC to boost the security of your domain name and ensure that domain name system is protected at all times.
Improve your passwords and enable two-factor authentication
Last but not least, you can always improve the security of your domain name information by simply strengthening the password to your account and enabling advanced authentication features like two-factor authentication. You can achieve the former by using a more stringent password policy or by using a reliable password management tool to generate strong passwords for you and store them in a safe location.
As for the latter, it’s important to add a second layer of protection for your account by making sure that anyone trying to access it needs to answer security question, type in a unique code that you have received on your phone, or verify their identity through a backup email. This is typically the point at which scammers will give up because they are unable to get through that second layer of account protection.
Wrapping up
Protecting your domain name should be one of your top priorities in 2021 if you are to elevate the security of your website and your company as a whole. Use these tips to safeguard your domain information and choose the right registrar that will ensure the safety of your data.
