Urgent Action Required By All Website Owners
Recent changes have been made to Australian website domain names and all businesses are being advised to take immediate action in order to protect themselves against potential cyber crime.
WHAT IS HAPPENING?
Earlier this year, the non-profit Australian website domain name administrator .au Domain Administration Limited (auDA) introduced a new system in which businesses could register shorter category domain names. This means, for example:
“xyzcars.com.au” could instead be “xyzcars.au”.
As part of this, they have given Australian businesses a priority application period in which they can register their own .au domain. After this time, auDA will make available all unregistered .au domains to the general public.
WHAT IF YOU DON’T REGISTER THE DOMAIN?
If you do not register your .au domain by the end of the priority application period – i.e. 20th September 2022- it is possible that another entity will purchase it.
This could then result in you having to pay a large sum of money for them to surrender the domain to you. Furthermore, they could use that domain to engage in cybercrime, masquerading as your business.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?
We are recommending all businesses immediately contact their domain provider and register their equivalent .au domain name before 20th September 2022.
So, for example, if you currently own warrandytekia.com.au, we recommend you also register warrandytekia.au
AdTorque Edge clients who have a website with us and wish to have their new domain point to their existing site can contact our Support Team for assistance setting this up.
Those clients with a website hosted by another provider, will need to contact them for assistance.
FURTHER INFORMATION
If you want to know more about this significant industry change, please visit the auDA website.
For any queries or concerns about this matter, you can contact our office.