CIRA helps Canadian organizations secure their websites against domain hijacking and attack

Domain lock, available now from CIRA, allows CIRA's D-Zone customers to quickly turn on advanced domain protection

OTTAWA, June 20, 2016 /CNW/ - Today the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) announced general availability for Domain Lock, a new service  offered to CIRA's D-Zone customers, which allows users to quickly lock their .CA domains at the registry.

CANARIE, a vital component of Canada's digital infrastructure supporting research, education and innovation, has turned on Domain Lock, preventing malicious actors from making changes to domain settings or hijacking their valuable domains.

Key facts

• Domain hijacking is a serious concern and organizations that do not protect themselves could face something as simple as a hacktivists redirecting their websites to a political message or a thief intercepting emails or replacing a website with a phishing site to steal customer information.
• Domain Lock prevents unauthorized changes to the name server records by locking them at the domain registry. This is the most secure method available to protect organizations DNS from takeover via social engineering or from malicious insiders.
• Domain Lock is accessed through CIRA's D-Zone portal, making it simple to add this additional layer of protection to an organization's DNS security portfolio. An organization can then use user authentication levels to define who is able to manage what aspects of the DNS, update zones, add zones, and lock/unlock domains. Importantly, it also allows unlocking and changes to be made in minutes when needed.
• Domain Lock is a brand new service offered as part of CIRA's D-Zone Anycast DNS secondary service. Domain locking is not available from any other global DNS provider and helps streamline organization's DNS security workflows.
• Organizations choosing D-Zone get the fastest and most secure DNS for Canadians and a global footprint for DDoS protection and global queries.

Executive quotes

"Our websites and web applications are key assets for CANARIE and enable collaboration with our community. Domain Lock improves on the Domain Name protection provided by our current use of CIRA's D-Zone Anycast DNS service."

-          Mark Wolff, Chief Technology Officer, CANARIE

"We've seen the perils of domain hijacking and the impact that it can have on organization's ability to conduct business online. With this new offering to our D-Zone customers we're providing a simple way for teams that have already selected the best Canadian DNS solution on the market to quickly and easily add an additional layer of security to their online presence."

-          Dave Chiswell, vice president of product development for CIRA

Additional resources

Blog post: Read about some high-profile examples of domains that have been hijacked in CIRA Labs

Product information: Visit the Domain Lock product page on cira.ca.

About CIRA

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) manages the .CA top-level domain on behalf of all Canadians. A Member-based organization, CIRA also develops and implements policies that support Canada's Internet community, and represents the .CA registry internationally.

 

SOURCE Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA)

Ryan Saxby Hill, Communications manager, CIRA, [email protected], 613-316-2397