Cybersecurity: people quickly associate it with protecting computers, servers, email accounts, or cloud applications. Those are all critical pieces of the puzzle. But there’s one asset that often gets overlooked until it becomes a problem: your company’s domain name.
Most business owners don’t think about their domain very often, and that’s understandable. Once it’s registered and connected to a website and email system, it tends to sit quietly in the background without a whole lot of pomp and circumstance. Yet that single domain powers some of the most important parts of your business, including your website, email addresses, Microsoft 365 environment, and countless other cloud-based services.
It’s simple: if you lose control of your domain, you could temporarily lose control of your business.
Your Domain Is More Than a Website Address
Many organizations registered their domain years ago and haven’t thought about it since. Over time, the account may become tied to a former employee, an outside consultant, or an email address that no longer exists. Everything works perfectly, of course, until it doesn’t!
Perhaps the domain is up for renewal. Maybe you’re migrating off Microsoft 365. Perhaps you need to update DNS records for a new website, cloud service, or email security platform. Suddenly, nobody knows where the domain is registered or who owns the account. Heck, no one has any clue how to log in!
We’ve seen situations like this more often than many businesses realize. It’s one of those overlooked details that rarely causes problems until it becomes one of the most important accounts your company owns, and trying to track it all down when there’s panic company-wide is no pleasure for anyone.
Why Cybercriminals Target Domain Accounts
Your domain registrar account can be more valuable than most realize. If an attacker gains access, they may be able to redirect your website, intercept business email, modify DNS records, or disrupt communications with customers and vendors. Even if your computers remain secure, losing control of your domain can create widespread operational issues.
That’s why protecting the account behind your domain is just as important as protecting the devices connected to it. One of the goals of our comprehensive cybersecurity audit is to identify overlooked vulnerabilities like these before they become business disruptions. Effective cybersecurity evaluates the systems and accounts that quietly support your entire technology environment.
Simple Steps That Can Prevent Major Problems
Fortunately, domain security doesn’t have to be complicated.
Every business should know:
- Where its domain is registered.
- Who has administrative access.
- Whether recovery information is current.
- Whether Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is enabled.
It’s also a good idea to ensure more than one trusted individual has access to the account. If the only administrator leaves the company or becomes unavailable, recovering control can become unnecessarily difficult.
Domain Security Is Part of Business Continuity
Business continuity is about ensuring every critical piece of your technology infrastructure remains accessible when you need it. Your domain sits at the center of that infrastructure and protecting it should be part of every organization’s long-term technology strategy.
That’s one reason businesses throughout Greater Boston increasingly rely on trusted IT support specialists to regularly review their technology environments and ensure critical accounts remain properly secured.
Many of our clients also benefit from managed cloud services, helping ensure that the systems connected to their domain remain secure and properly maintained.
Cybersecurity Audits – Don’t Wait Until a Panic to Get Access
Some businesses don’t discover domain ownership issues until they’re already trying to make an urgent change. By then, the situation becomes far more stressful than it needs to be. A proactive review today can help prevent unnecessary downtime tomorrow.
If you’d like to learn more about our cybersecurity audits, IT consulting services in Boston and beyond, contact the M&H Consulting team today.
Categorised in: Cybersecurity, General