You go to work every day at the store you own, and one morning, your key to the door doesn`t work. You look in the window, and the display items have changed. A stranger is behind the counter. But when you call the police, they can`t do anything because the company papers now indicate that the store belongs to the stranger.

The above scenario isn`t likely to happen with a bricks-and-mortar store. Because of insecurities in the domain registration system, however, information highwaymen could take over your online business.

As with identity theft, domain thieves steal your identity -- the identity used to register aand configure your domain name. After that, your website, your email, your online business, and possibly your reputation are theirs.

Domain names at risk of theft

While theft is a risk with all domain names, domains most at risk are more valuable ones. Domains with dot com extensions have a higher resale value than domains with other extensions, and domains with high traffic or valuable keywords are also more likely to be targets.

The motive behind domain hijacking is usually monetary, but it may be personal. If anyone wants to attack you, stealing your domain name is one way to do it.

How domain theft happens

When domain hijackers steal your domain, they gain access to the domain`s Whois records. They can modify the domain`s nameservers so that the domain points to a different server. They can also transfer the domain to a different registrar.

Either way, site visitors will find themselves at the website of the domain hijacker instead of at your site. All domain email will go to or through the other server instead of to you. All you`ll have left is a website without public access because your domain isn`t pointing to it any more.

How can this happen?

Domain hijacking methods

? Domain hijackers send forged faxes to the domain registrar, imperson