If you consider the role played by a domain name in a website, regardless of whether it belongs to a company or a private individual, you soon come to the conclusion that it is an indispensable asset. Changing your domain? That would be difficult or even unthinkable. Just imagine you are responsible for the domains in your company, but you take some time off and travel the world for a few months. Then, your domain comes up for renewal and the payment cannot be made in time, or the whole thing just slips your mind, more focused on your travel experience. Now imagine the damage a situation like that could cause. The domain would no longer be accessible, the website would be down, the company’s email traffic would come to a halt, and worst-case scenario, someone else could snap up your precious domain.
Preventing the loss of your domain
In reality, situations like this rarely occur, but they are not inconceivable. In smaller companies or organizations, for example, responsibilities are often not clearly assigned or defined. That’s where something like this can easily happen. And it’s why Hostpoint launched its loss protection service as part of the Domain Shield package at the beginning of this year. This ensures that customers’ domains remain in their possession if payment is not made in time.
If the person responsible for the domain is absent for an extended period, as described above, or if a credit card expires or the payment fails for some other reason, Hostpoint secures the domain for the customer. This ensures that the website and email addresses continue to work without any interruptions and that the domain cannot be bought by anyone else. Hostpoint’s notification process then kicks in across multiple channels to bring the outstanding payment to the attention of the customer and any designated authorized person.
Recognizing the potential hazards in connection with your domain
A domain can also be exposed to hazards within a company or organization. Unauthorized or inadvertent changes can result in the website no longer being accessible and emails no longer being deliverable. Domain Shield offers protection against unauthorized activity by ensuring that any changes to the domain settings have to be approved by the domain owner and any designated authorized person. This covers, for example, a change of domain ownership, cancellation of the domain and changes to the name server information or DNS zones.
A further important component of Domain Shield is the trustee service. This ensures that the personal data of customers is not transferred to domain administrators or third parties. Customers are represented in the domain registry and in connection with any inquiries by Swiss Domain Trustee AG, a subcontractor of Hostpoint. Hostpoint passes on any legitimate inquiries, such as offers to buy the domain, to the domain owner. The trustee service thus plays an important role in terms of data protection.
The bottom line is that protecting your domain name is worthwhile for many different reasons. You can think of a domain as being the front door of a company’s or individual’s web presence. And who just leaves their front door open?
Additional security and performance benefits with DNS Anycast
The do-it-all Domain Shield package offers more than just the data protection trustee service and protection against loss and unauthorized activities. It also includes DNS Anycast, which offers numerous name server locations around the world. That enables your website to be accessed more quickly, improves its stability and provides the domain with better protection against DDoS attacks.
Domain Shield is available for an annual fee of CHF 12. You will find further information on loss protection and the other benefits of Domain Shield here:
More on Domain Shield
