The realm of domains
Choosing domain name is an art, talent and magic, all in one. A good domain name may bring much profits by itself, it gets more and more expensive as time goes by — just like a good wine.
Domain names industry is one of most dynamic, even though the number of «good» names, those not yet taken, is very small.
However, owning domain means handling possible security issues associated with them.
Own email, own domain
Among other identification means, email is often used to gain control over domain name. It is used to identify the domain owner and perform, beyond sending important news and updates, a number of domain administration actions.
It is definitely a bad idea to use an email address hosted by a free email service as the domain's administrative contact(s). Free email providers may be lost, they may discard certain email messages. In case you lose control over a free email address (and that may happen easily), you might as well lose your domain name. Or, at least, you'll have hard time proving you are the legitimate owner of one.
It is definitely a bad idea to use the contact email address for purposes different from receiving technical/informative requests and newsletters related to domain name(s). Remember: he who owns the email address, owns the domain.
In cases when two or more email addresses may be specified as contact email in domain's WHOIS data, try to use several email addresses hosted at reliable, preferably commercial email services.
Welcome, Mr. X
Privacy was always an issue. WHOIS data of the majority of TLDs is open to everyone, thus your data provided for WHOIS will be seen by everyone.
There are several security concerns. First, your data may be used to register other domain names; if the latter are used for unlawful purposes, you could be in trouble.
Second, spammers' harvesters will gain your data and your contact means will inevitably become the aim of unsolicited messages.
Third, if you make use of any privacy-protection service (a number of registrars offers such a paid service), you could acquire a dubious reputation of a person hiding their whereabouts. It is not a secret that spammers are using those privacy protection schemes for their benefit.
Domain names: a short survival guide
After spending much time studying the domain names district of our reality, I have worked out several pieces of advice that could be of help to those looking for protection against cyber-threats.
Don't 'just look at' free domain name, only search for it if you are ready to buy it. Otherwise, you could witness an unpleasant situation: the domain you've found becomes taken very quickly. The rule is simple: first come, first take. Cybersquatters are monitoring such searches and can act quickly, if the domain looks attractive.
Be in control of all the contact data you provide. Make sure you can restore control over email address you have; if there's a least doubt the email will remain yours, replace it as soon as possible. The same applies to all the other contact means.
Never provide false personal info for WHOIS database. ICANN obliges most registrars to perform checks and if any contact data of your domain is found to be false, you can lose the domain (or all the domains you owned).
What other security precautions worth mentioning I haven't offered?
