Cheltenham firm launches attack on hackers and cybersquatters
A CHELTENHAM-BASED web company has launched an attack on hackers around the world, by creating a new security device.
Frank Domains, a group of web designers and developers with offices in Jessop Avenue, has developed a special key fob system designed to tackle cybersquatters.
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James Ecendance
The fob is designed to prevent hackers taking over company domains.
Cybersquatting is at a record high in Britain, with 2,944 cases in the 12 months to July, according to legal publisher Sweet & Maxwell, while GCHQ has launched a major cyber security initiative to fight cyber crime.
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James Eccendance, director of Frank Domains, said: "Many businesses have underestimated that even present and past staff members with online authorisation can post malicious items on their company website or even take the whole site down as an act of revenge.
"Many bosses fail to realise that a domain can become the ex-staff members' asset and in the majority of cases, a company won't be able to get it back.
"A website can be rebuilt and you can't retrieve your domain name if it belongs to someone else.
"Putting individuals back in direct control of their domain means being protected against these hijack scenarios.
"Such a simple security check could mean the difference between your reputation and perhaps losing your business altogether."
The device mirrors a commonplace banking system where a login pin code changes every 30 seconds for the true domain owner to stay protected.
It then alerts a designated person or group if somebody attempts to make changes to a domain.
Frank Domains has more than 2,000 registered Gloucestershire domains and offers domain names for every country in Europe.
Mr Ecendance is a Norwegian speaker and the firm's European business has grown from the Scandinavian domain market. It is now working with partners across Europe to offer local language and support in all major European economies by the end of 2013.
Cyber crime is costing the country £27 billion a year and GCHQ's response has been to launch a free Cyber Security for Business programme, which helps companies heighten their responses to the threat.
A report by the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee concluded the UK's defences remained inadequate, despite a £650 million cyber security programme.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said cyber security threats posed a real and significant risk to UK business by targeting valuable assets such as data and intellectual property.
Comments
by pdogdizzle
Wednesday, October 03 2012, 8:32PM
“I agree with you - writer was clueless.
"Domainsafe (Bank style login security): We are the first UK domain company to offer our customers a key fob option for additional security when logging into your domains – the same security used for online banking. Just type in the one time password when you login." - from Frank Domains site pretty well explains it, instead of all the random pr sounding banter above.”
by foamcow
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 11:03AM
“This isn't protecting Cybersquatting.
Cybersquatting is the act of registering a domain that another company may wish to use then basically holding it to ransom. The domain may be the company name or brand name or just something similar, say iphone6.com or applecomputers.com.
Reasons may be to charge an inflated price to the party that wants the domain or to attempt to "pass off" as that business or brand for whatever reason - to lampoon or to defraud for example.
It baffles me how a "dongle" could prevent this.
Perhaps this device does something else - such as provide a legitimate identity for businesses wishing to register domain names? In which case, won't all of the domain registrars also need to join the scheme and anyone that wants to register a domain will require one of these devices?
Either way, that's not "Cybersquatting".
I'm sure the device is great and does something useful but I don't think this article expresses, in any way, what that actually is and rather confuses the matter.”