Domain Hijacking Got Easier or Did It?
November 10, 2004 – 1:33 pm(This was published at Circle-ID)
Slashdot recently ran a story about the upcoming changes to the ICANN rules governing domain transfers between registrars. A blog entry at Netcraft referenced by the story stated that:
…domain transfer requests will be automatically approved in five days unless they are explicitly denied by the account owner. This is a change from current procedure, in which a domain’s ownership and nameservers remain unchanged if there is no response to a transfer request. This could mean trouble for domain owners who don’t closely manage their records. Domains with incorrect e-mail addresses and outdated administrative contact information are at particular risk, as the domain’s WHOIS database information will be used to inform domain owners of transfer requests. A non-response becomes the equivalent of answering “yes” to a transfer request, according to the ICANN policy change.
However, a closer look at the actual rules makes it clear that it is not as bad as the story makes it out to be. The registrars still have the right to deny transfers if the domain is in “lock” status (which is a free service from most registrars):
Upon denying a transfer request for any of the following reasons, the Registrar of Record must provide the Registered Name Holder and the potential Gaining Registrar with the reason for denial. The Registrar of Record may deny a transfer request only in the following specific instances:
…
7. A domain name was already in “lock status” provided that the Registrar provides a readily accessible and reasonable means for the Registered Name Holder to remove the lock status.
While the actual policy change is a bit worse than it was before, it is not as bad as people make it out to be. Just make sure to lock your domains!
