Prevent Someone Impersonating Your Company
The way domain names are registered in Australia changed in March 2022. It’s the biggest shake-up to domain names in the last 20 years. Find out what the biggest risks and opportunities are for your business or organisation.
What are the changes to domain names?
If you currently have a website based in Australia, you probably have a com.au, net.au, org.au, edu.au or gov.au domain name.
From 24 March 2022, Australians now have access to shorter and simpler domain names with the introduction of direct .au domain names.
This means you’re now able to register and use a shorter domain name, such as yourbusiness.au rather than yourbusiness.com.au.
Your matching .au direct domain has been placed on a 6-month priority hold for you – meaning that you have the first choice to register it before 20 September 2022.
After this priority period, the .au domain will become available to the general public on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) recommends that all Australian businesses with existing domain names register the .au equivalents.
What are the risks of inaction?
If you don’t register your .au alternative, it’s possible that someone else could step in and take it. This could create an opportunity for someone to impersonate your business and conduct fraudulent cyber activity, such as creating a fake website or sending emails to people pretending to be your business.
Your clients might not spot that the invoice they’ve just received was from accounts@yourbusiness.au and not your actual email address accounts@yourbusiness.com.au.
Activity such as this can lead to you and your clients losing money, resulting in a hit to your reputation and the level of trust your customers have with you.
Tracing cybercriminals can be difficult, and it can also be complicated to regain a domain name once it is registered to someone else – so as always, prevention is key.
What are the benefits?
Your domain name is an important part of your business – it’s identity, brand and promotion. Think of it as your digital shopfront. Registering the different variations makes it easier for people to find your website and provides you with the simplest website possible for your branding and marketing. After all, the more memorable your URL, the better.
Even if you don’t plan on using the new .au direct domain name immediately, registering it now ensures you have access to it in the future, allowing you to capture more customers or members when they search, creating trust and improving your marketing.
Like to know more?
The Creative Works are web and digital marketing specialists. We can help answer any questions you may have about this, or how to make your website more secure in other ways.
Read the article from Business Victoria.