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Count down to the biggest Domain event in history

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Bacon Farmer

Top Contributor
Interesting article in Smart Company today https://www.smartcompany.com.au/technology/cyber-security/news-bruce-billson-auda-cutoff/

Basically the vast majority of small business owners who have a website, have no idea what's coming.

It means that anybody with an Australian connection can register the .au version of your name. And then exploit you for $'s according to the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson.

“The consequences of not registering your existing business name by this deadline could be catastrophic for a business if a rival or someone else took their online name,” Billson warned.

After this date, anyone can purchase the domain name and begin stealing traffic, impersonating the original site, or demand dollars."

In other words it's the biggest potential cyber squatting event in the history of the internet.

It's lucky auDA members are only liable for $10.
 

Bacon Farmer

Top Contributor
Let's play have they applied yet: go to https://www.auda.org.au/tools/priority-status-tool and enter "news".

Has News.COM.au applied - nup

Has News.ORG.au applied - yep

News.org.au is registered to an individual not a PBI.

Hmm is that OK auDA? Nup!

Is this attempted cyber squatting? Yep

So after they register the .au they can't ditch the .org.au and there is no ramifications right?
 

trellian

Top Contributor
Hi Bacon,

Every registrar has been asked by auDA, to message their clients of .au. When I say "asked" I actually mean "required" and must show proof to auDA that it was done. Every registrant has been emailed more that once about .au, its launch, its release, its priority allocation and now when getting close to open season, there are national TV, Radio and Social campaigns everywhere. If a current registrant has not seen one of their emails, or seen or heard the ads, I would be surprised.

That is not to say that they all understand what this means for their business...

For contested names like the one you mentioned above, we have recommended to our clients to wait to the last moments before applying for respective .au domains, as you are placed at a disadvantage to apply early. Which is what the org.au applicant did.

Priority category 1 - Registered on or before 4 Feb 2018​



DomainStatus
news.com.auNot Applied
news.net.auNot Applied
news.wa.gov.auNot Applied

Priority category 2 - Registered after 4 Feb 2018 and before 24 Mar 2022​



DomainStatus
news.org.auApplied
news.id.auNot Applied


We anticipate that .gov will not apply and that the last few, but since both the .com and the .net are under the same registrant, one would expect CSC to be getting ready for their application in the last week in order not to disclose their plans to .gov. In our opinion .gov should not have been in the running for this priority allocations in the first place. Can you imagine a Government site on .au and not on gov.au, there is no way a visitor would be able to trust or verify that it is an official Government website... just opens up a lot of security issues if any government department ever does anything on a direct .au domain.

Maybe these type of post and even the scrare campaigns that some Registrars are doing are just what is needed to make sure that business owners that have a com.au do take up their respective direct .au domains.
 

trellian

Top Contributor
Cyber squat - No!
Invest in valuable domains - Yes!

cyber squatting is far too often confused and misunderstood with a valid business model that is domain investing.

If you register a domain that is a typo or confusingly similar domain to an existing TM/Brand and your only intent is to profit from that fact, that is cyber squatting and that is not allowed with current policies that apply to .au as well.

It is like someone buying up all the corner real estate in the city, and you telling the owners that they are property squatting and they should not be allowed to do that...
 

Bacon Farmer

Top Contributor
I just checked and approximately 1 in 4 (25%) of the top 100 Australian companies (including BHP) have not taken any action to secure the .au version of their domains.

Did they not get auDA's message, do they not care or do they have big pockets?

Interesting times ahead.
 

trellian

Top Contributor
If their names are with CSC I believe that their strategy is to apply last minute. So will be interesting to see what happens.
 

Bacon Farmer

Top Contributor
Yep looks like CSC, Instra, Griffith Hack.

Interesting strategy when you are the only party or Category 1 involved. Hope there's no outages.
 

Oz.

Top Contributor
This will be interesting. As mentioned in another thread now the gov has applied for thousands of .au domains, including news.au.
In what world does a wa government news site applying to have a .au make any sense. It’s frigging a regional government website.
Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
 

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trellian

Top Contributor
news.wa.gov.au

does not resolve, so based on their own policies they are not even eligible to claim this token.
 

Erwin

Top Contributor
I just checked and approximately 1 in 4 (25%) of the top 100 Australian companies (including BHP) have not taken any action to secure the .au version of their domains.

Did they not get auDA's message, do they not care or do they have big pockets?

Interesting times ahead.
Did you by any chance do another check on the 100 top Aus companies to see if they actually applied prior to the initial release?
 

Lorenzo

Top Contributor
Whos is this one?

Domain Name: BHP.AU
Registry Domain ID: D407400000127274817-AU
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.auda.org.au
Registrar URL: http://www.terrific.com.au/
Last Modified:
Registrar Name: Terrific.com.au Pty Ltd
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: support@terrific.com.au
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +61.388997598
Reseller Name:
Status: inactive https://afilias.com.au/get-au/whois-status-codes#inactive
Status: serverRenewProhibited https://afilias.com.au/get-au/whois-status-codes#serverRenewProhibited
Status Reason: Not Currently Eligible For Renewal
Status: addPeriod https://afilias.com.au/get-au/whois-status-codes#addPeriod
Registrant Contact ID: MRG63339ade0a14c
Registrant Contact Name: Catch User
Registrant Contact Email: catch-user1@lis.com.au
Tech Contact ID: MRG63339ade0a14c
Tech Contact Name: Catch User
Tech Contact Email: catch-user1@lis.com.au
Name Server:
DNSSEC: unsigned
Registrant: Jessica Noonan
Eligibility Type: Citizen/Resident
 

jamesau

Regular Member
Whos is this one?

Domain Name: BHP.AU
Registry Domain ID: D407400000127274817-AU
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.auda.org.au
Registrar URL: http://www.terrific.com.au/
Last Modified:
Registrar Name: Terrific.com.au Pty Ltd
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: support@terrific.com.au
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +61.388997598
Reseller Name:
Status: inactive https://afilias.com.au/get-au/whois-status-codes#inactive
Status: serverRenewProhibited https://afilias.com.au/get-au/whois-status-codes#serverRenewProhibited
Status Reason: Not Currently Eligible For Renewal
Status: addPeriod https://afilias.com.au/get-au/whois-status-codes#addPeriod
Registrant Contact ID: MRG63339ade0a14c
Registrant Contact Name: Catch User
Registrant Contact Email: catch-user1@lis.com.au
Tech Contact ID: MRG63339ade0a14c
Tech Contact Name: Catch User
Tech Contact Email: catch-user1@lis.com.au
Name Server:
DNSSEC: unsigned
Registrant: Jessica Noonan
Eligibility Type: Citizen/Resident

There was once an affiliation between Terrific.com.au and Drop.com.au - not sure if that is still the case.
 
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