Technology

You are watching your network, but who is watching your domain?

Your company’s domain is the online identity of your organization. As such it is one of your most valued assets. It might not cost very much, but it is a critical component of what makes your business accessible to clients, partners and prospects. Your domain does more than represent your name online, it controls your email flow, digital reputation, access to your website, and access to production and development servers to name a few.  

Domains are managed by trusted domain registrars, and it would spell bad news for your company if your domain registrar were to be compromised. Malicious actors could reroute email, reroute website visitors to a compromised website (and these fakes are getting more convincing), or conduct a variety of fraud and malicious activity by assuming the identity of your online presence.  

Network Solutions (A web.com company), the world’s first domain registrar, reported this week that they were victims of a cybersecurity breach that they discovered in August. According to the report, an unauthorized party gained access to the company’s computing systems and potentially accessed some customer’s personally identifiable information (PII). The potentially breached data could include name, address, phone number, email address, and information regarding services rendered. According to Network Solutions no credit card data was compromised. They are Payment Card Industry compliant and stored credit card information is encrypted, but it’s still a good practice for customers to monitor credit card activity for suspicious activity. Network Solutions has hired an independent cybersecurity firm to investigate the incident and reported the incident to the federal authorities. 

As a precaution, Network Solutions is requiring all users to reset their password the next time they log in. Network Solutions is a big player in the domain name space, so you may use them as your domain registrar. If you use Network Solutions we recommend you log in and change your password as soon as possible. If you don’t use Network Solutions, remember that it is important to safeguard your accounts and enable multi factor authentication wherever possible. Your domain doesn’t cost very much, but can you afford to lose control of it?  

If you’re not sure how to check your domain registrar, or if you need an overall IT Security health check, reach out to our cybersecurity team for help you can trust.