(Untitled)

[ctartchick]

haven't been around for a while, I know, and for those who have been reading my private journal, here's the scoop: our domain name got hijacked! Stolen right out from under our noses with 11 months left on the registration we paid for. After much wrangling, arguing and swearing, we managed to get a new domain FREE from the company that sold us the

Comments

[doorinward]

oh man...that is horrible. I hope you are all doing better soon.

[ctartchick]

We'll get by, I imagine - things online are back up and running properly now, and Paul is working on his heart problems. They could fix a lot now that they couldn't even a few years ago, and we are being told that it's not terribly serious. But thanks for the good wishes - they're certainly always welcome. You get to feeling better, too - being as sick as you seem to be from your last post isn't any fun at all!

[desu]

I'd wondered what happened to you! Glad to see you doing well.

How do people hijack domain names?

[ctartchick]

I'm not really sure how they managed it; we got online one day and the sites were gone; in there place was a search page. When we ran a WHOIS, it showed our domain name belonging to some domain reseller in Sydney; later it passed to a company in China somewhere. I have no idea how they did it, and apparantly neither did our registrar, because they said they couldn't do anything about it. It was extremely frustrating.

[mariann]

That hijack thing seems highly suspicious... have you checked with the domain registrant to see who authorized the change of DNS server and admin/tech contact?

My hubby has had heart issues on and off for the past five years. The doctors still can't figure out what's wrong, but we know something isn't right. I hope your doctors are able to localize and treat your hubby's issues.

Happy holidays. :)

[ctartchick]

I'd have to ask Paul if he asked that or not - he was the one to speak to them about it. My impression of it was that someone *elsewhere* had simply managed to come in and take the domain, although honestly I'm not sure how one could do that, or why the original registrar was unable to get it back.

DNS hijacking

[theheretic]

Desu asked me to tell you what I know about domain hijacking.
Domains are owned. Their ownership is registered on central DNS servers, which percolated to DNS servers around the internet. The only way someone can hijack your domain is to hack the central DNS servers. This is a fine opportunity to contact the Patriot Act people (Homeland Defense and FBI) and make use of its international felony charges against hacking. They made the law, time to use it.

Re: DNS hijacking

[ctartchick]

Thanks for the info! Paul had said something about having legal recourse, but he never followed up on it; at the time, we were so frantic about getting my business site, which operates off the same domain name, back up and running, that we just didn't pursue it. But we've a friend who has offered his assistance (he's a lawyer) and now I know better what to ask him to do for us.