Let’s face it. Despite the rhetoric about its safety, the Internet remains a wide-open town living in fear of outlaws, not unlike a Wild West town in old movies. A recent incident does nothing to raise anybody’s comfort level.
Two pint-sized Internet companies on opposite sides of the globe with valuable domain names had their Web sites “stolen” last month, allegedly by brainy but greedy computer criminals, according to MSNBC. They apparently plucked “Web.net” and “Bali.com” right out of the database where Internet addresses are reserved.
About a week later, the Web sites were still offline and the domain names registered to someone else. Both firms were likely victims of the third consecutive publicized attack on one of the Internet’s most basic technologies.
Some hackers have figured out how to trick the Internet domain-name system so they can take control of some sought-after Web addresses from law-abiding online marketers. “I don’t know why someone would do this to us,” said Tonya Hancherow of Web Networks Inc., the rightful owner of Web.net, a small Canadian Internet service provider for more than 3,500 charities. “I don’t know what to do for all my customers.”
Reportedly, the two sites were targeted because the domain names themselves could fetch a hefty price if they were sold, perhaps for as much as $100,000.
Peter Rieger, who operates Bali.com, a tourist Web site for the Indonesian island, is also worried that as time passes and more registration information gets changed, it will become harder to undo the damage caused by these types of thieves.
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