Famous Bloggers Founder Loses Domain Names

If you’re an online entrepreneur, there are few things more important than the security of your domain names. Building an audience and marketing your website depends upon the security of these names and of the passwords that protect them. It also depends upon the password security of  other accounts you use in your business. So imagine how it might feel to suddenly discover that the domain names to two of your most valuable sites are suddenly gone!

Here’s What Happened

It’s your worst nightmare. On Wednesday of last week, blogger and online entrepreneur Hesham Zebida says he discovered, to his dismay, that two of his most valuable domain names (including FamousBloggers.net) had been mysteriously transferred from his Web hosting account. He says he then received an e-mail from someone claiming to have the domains and offering to sell them back. Zebida.com

What he did next. After contacting his hosting company, Zebida spent the next four days doing what many of us might, contacting everyone imaginable including law enforcement and his connections in the online blogging community, working to get his domains back. He finally succeeded, but admits he didn’t get much sleep in the process. Here’s what we can all take from his ordeal. Famous Bloggers

Lessons Learned

It’s your responsibility. Zebida blames his hosting company for allowing his domains to disappear in the first place and for not working hard enough to resolve the problem on his behalf, but the fact is that hosting companies regularly post warnings like this one. It is every website owner’s responsibility to do what they can to secure their site, as Zebida says he now realizes. Go Daddy

What you can do. If you want to go the extra mile and avoid issues with your domain names and other online security problems, webmaster Mitz Pantic has some suggestions for you. Don’t rely on your hosting company alone to protect your site and domain names. Take the time to learn what’s necessary to protect your online business from harm. Let’s Build Websites

Risks Abound

Don’t fool yourself. You may believe that only big companies need to deal with attacks on their websites and that small businesses are too far under the radar to draw the attention of attackers. You’re wrong. In a recent Twitter chat with representatives from online security provider Symantec, members of our community learned the threat is real. Small Business Trends

Protecting your Website. Of course, as blogger and online entrepreneur Scott Dudley reminds us, it’s not just your domain name that’s vulnerable to attack. The content management software you use to create your Website may also allow unwanted access, resulting in lost visibility and lost business. Take steps to protect your site. Lo Cost Marketing

What the Future Holds

The problem with progress. New developments in Web standards may bring even more security challenges in the not-too-distant future. For example, new tools known collectively as HTML5 could make your humble website as sophisticated and powerful as desktop software, but resulting security risks may give any webmaster pause. Technology Review

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