Google’s German Domain Name Kidnapped
According to recent reports, Google’s German domain, google.de, was temporarily kidnapped. Unbeknownst to Google, the Internet address of google.de and the page name were transferred to a new ISP. The security measures that were supposed to be in place apparently failed since neither the existing ISP nor the new ISP seems to have conducted the confirmation necessary for change of ownership – such as the service provider that requested the domain name change confirming the indentity of the person/company that requested the transfer.
For .ca domain names, if a change of registrar request is initiated, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), under its general registration rules, will notify the registrant by email of the transfer request and the registrant must confirm or reject the transfer request by linking to the secure web page link provided by CIRA in its email confirmation request. If the registrant rejects the transfer or fails to confirm the transfer request within 7 days of CIRA’s email, the transfer request will be cancelled. So in theory, at least, what happened to google.de shouldn’t be possible with google.ca.
Security measures by registrars must also be bolstered by good management by registrants of their domain names. As mentioned in an earlier post, central management of domains and keeping the administrative contact information current is very important.
This entry was posted by Karen Monteith on Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Domain Name Disputes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.