Your company’s domain name is more than just an address on the web; it’s the foundation of your entire digital estate. This single, critical asset dictates where customers find your website, where your confidential email is delivered, how you communicate with your customers, and how you prove your identity across the internet.
How are you securing this priceless deed? For most businesses, it’s protected with strong passwords and two-factor authentication—the equivalent of keeping the deed to your estate in a desk drawer under lock and key. It feels safe, but what happens if a sophisticated attacker commits domain hijacking and gets the key?
The threat of domain hijacking
Even though strong passwords and two-factor authentication are critical security layers, they are not foolproof. Domain hijacking is a real and growing threat.
All it takes is a single point of failure, often a simple human error, for an attacker to get the “key” to your account. Once they have it, they don’t just steal the deed; they seize your entire digital estate. In an instant, they can:
- Change your domain’s nameservers: Attackers can redirect your website traffic, sending your customers to a fraudulent site designed to steal their data or spread malware. From the outside, this hostile site looks like your legitimate business.
- Redirect your MX records: By altering your domain’s mail records, attackers can intercept every email sent to your company, from sensitive internal communications and financial reports to client invoices and trade secrets.
- Send emails from your email domain: With control of your email, they can send “password reset” requests to your customers to hijack other accounts, issue fraudulent wiring instructions to your accounting department, scam your partners, and destroy the trust you’ve spent years building.
- Access other third-party services: They can use your domain to access any third-party service that uses your domain email for verification, compromising your cloud services, financial portals, customer databases, and other critical systems.
The consequences are immense: catastrophic financial loss, irreparable brand damage, and a complete loss of operational control.
The ultimate defense: Registry Lock
If a password is a filing cabinet lock, Registry Lock is a maximum-security vault.
Registry Lock provides the ultimate layer of protection against domain hijacking by securing your domain name at the source: the domain registry. Once a domain is locked at the registry level, no critical changes can be made—not even by someone who has full access to your 101domain account.
Think of it as adding a multi-party, offline security protocol to your digital deed. Any attempt to modify, transfer, or delete your domain is simply rejected by the registry itself.
How does Registry Lock work?
Making a change to a registry-locked domain name is an intentional, multi-layered process that requires direct human verification, eliminating the risk of unauthorized or accidental changes.
- Formal Request by Primary Account Holder: The process must be initiated by the primary account holder on record. To authorize other individuals to request changes, the primary account holder must provide a formal letter on company letterhead, explicitly naming the authorized parties and bearing the account holder’s signature.
- Live Voice Verification: A dedicated security specialist at 101domain will contact the primary account holder directly by phone to confirm their identity by verifying a series of security questions. This crucial step ensures the request is legitimate.
- Registry Authorization: After successful verification, an authorized senior manager at 101domain manually submits the unlock request to the domain registry. The registry then verifies this request through a phone call with 101domain management, using a confidential passphrase.
Only after this multi-step, human-verified, offline process is the domain name unlocked. We make the necessary changes, within a specific, agreed-upon timeframe, and then immediately re-lock the domain, placing your digital deed safely back in the vault.
Which top-level domains support Registry Lock?
Registry Lock is available for many of the world’s most popular top-level domains, with more being added regularly. Here are some of the most common domains we protect:
.ac, .bank, .biz, .co, .com, .info, .insurance, .io, .mobi, .net, .pro, .sh, .us
If you don’t see your domain listed, please contact our team to inquire about options and availability.
RELATED ARTICLE: Registry Lock: How to have “the talk” with your IT team
The deed to your digital estate belongs in a vault
Cyberattacks are only growing more sophisticated. Through social engineering and phishing, attackers can exploit a single human error to get the keys to your account. With Registry Lock, you have the power to make those stolen keys useless. It prevents anyone from making fundamental changes to your domain, even with full account access.
For less than $1/day, you can ensure your business stays online, your communications remain private, and your foundational assets stay firmly in your control. The question is simple: would you rather leave the deed to your digital estate in a desk drawer or secure it in a vault?
We are renowned for our global reach and capabilities—get the services and support you need to make meaningful decisions to ensure your brand is always protected.
Monitoring & Enforcement Services
Our monitoring solutions and dedicated analysts work around the clock for you. When a problem is found, we have solutions available to take care of it in-house.
Our Security & Technology Partners
As a security-focused domain name and web technology provider, we have a wide range of complementary services and best-in-class partners available to you when you need them.