Woman's Web site hijacked
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Domain name hijacking is alive and happening in
Greeley.
Colette Pitcher, owner of Art
Department at Showcase, 1335 8th Ave., Greeley, recently learned that her Web
site's domain name was taken over when her Web host failed to pay her name
registration fees.
Her domain name, http://www.artbycolette.com/, now takes the user to a search
engine with a notice that the
site is
unavailable.
"It just all of a sudden didn't
work, and I punched in the name and got another site," Pitcher said. "It was
something on nursing. It didn't really make any sense, and it certainly didn't
need to be Art by Colette. I was surprised someone wanted it so
quickly."
According to the Mountain States
Better Business Bureau, domain name hijacking takes many forms. Pitcher's was
the least extreme, but one that may not be
uncommon.
"There are companies out there just
waiting to get the list of expired names and grab them," said Barbara Read,
communications director of the BBB. "They put on pornographic material or send a
blackmail letter, saying if you want it back, it will cost
you."
Large businesses and even government
municipalities may find their sites hijacked with offers to have the site
returned for a fee ranging from $2,500 to $500,000.
Most Web site names are purchased for a specific length of time. The
rights must be extended or they will expire. In the worst-case scenario, someone
grabs the expired domain, usually high-traffic sites, and points users instead
to pornographic content.
The more traffic the
URL gets, the greater the click-through value to a site hijacker. This means
more potential damage to the original owner, and a higher ransom to get it
back.
Pitcher said she feels lucky. She has a
new Web site, http://www.colettepitcher.com/. Instead of relying on a server
company to ensure her registration fees are paid, Pitcher says she now manages
the site herself.
Luckily, she said, her site
wasn't imperative to her business: "It's handy for me to use as a portfolio,
instead of sending one out in the mail," Pitcher said. "It's just a
convenience."
The BBB advises that the best
antidote is for business owners to ensure that their domain names remain
properly registered and current. For those with names or trademarks they don't
want abused, the best defense is to register variations in both the .com and
.net form. The .org is probably only necessary for those involved in charitable
activities or organizations.
Some businesses may
get e-mails warning them that their registration is about to expire. Rather than
submitting credit card information, Read suggests going directly to the
source.
ABOUT
DOMAINS
WHAT'S A DOMAIN NAME?
In simple terms, a domain name is a
human-language equivalent of an address on the Internet. The name actually
translates to a number, or more correctly a series of numbers, roughly
comparable to a telephone number. Like a telephone number, an Internet address
is unique. No two are the same. And like a telephone number, it serves to
connect "callers" to one specific place on the Internet.
Domain names have at least two parts, separated by a dot or
period.
The part after the dot is called the Top
Level Domain. The Top Level Domain serves to broadly categorize the name as to
its type or purpose. Common TLDs include:
* .com
(commercial)
* .org
(organization)
* .edu (educational
institutions)
* .net
(networks)
* .gov (U.S.
government)
* .mil (U.S.
military)
The part of the domain name before the
dot is the Second Level Domain. If you're registering a name, you have
considerable freedom of choice in what this will be. So long as the name you
choose does not already exist under the same TLD, and is not obviously a famous
trademark owned by someone else, its registration is generally allowed. An SLD
can contain up to 24 characters: letters, numbers and dashes are
allowed.
REGISTRATION
Databases of domain records are
maintained by InterNIC, the primary name registry on the Internet in the U.S.,
and by a variety of similar agencies throughout the world. Accessed through a
utility program called WHOIS, these databases are easily accessed from
throughout the Net. InterNIC presently charges $100 for the first two years'
registration of a new name, upon initial registration.
Most people use an Internet "Presence Provider" to assist them to
register and set up a domain name. Typically, these businesses will charge $50
to $100 for their assistance in registering a name with
InterNIC.
Source: http://www.domains.org/
SCAMS
For more
information on Internet scams that affect businesses, contact the BBB online at
http://www.mountainstates.bbb.org/ or call
686-7722.
For information about the legal
aspects of domain name theft, visit www.llrx.com/congress/100200.htm. Or for complete listings of
Internet protections, visit www.internetprivacyadvocate.org.
