How Expired Domains Can Lead to Hijacking and Data Breaches

What if you woke up one morning to find that your company’s website no longer belongs to you? Your customers receive phishing emails from your official domain, and transactions are being redirected to hackers. Your brand’s reputation is taking a serious hit, and it’s all because your domain expired. Expired domains are an often-overlooked threat, but in the hands of cybercriminals, they become powerful tools for hijacking and fraud.

Unfortunately, this isn’t just a hypothetical scenario. It happens more often than you might think. Cybercriminals are always on the lookout for expired domains, waiting for businesses to drop the ball. Once a domain registration lapses, hackers can swoop in, hijack your domain, and wreak havoc – intercepting customer communications, impersonating your brand, and causing irreparable damage. The good news? With the right precautions, you can protect your business from this type of attack.

How Hackers Exploit Expired Domains

When a domain expires, it enters a grace period before becoming available for anyone to purchase. If you don’t act quickly to renew, cybercriminals can take advantage of the situation and claim the domain. Here are some ways they exploit expired domains:

Expired domains enable email hijacking and phishing attacks

When a business loses control of its domain, hackers can set up email servers using your domain name. This allows them to intercept emails, reset passwords for linked accounts, or launch phishing attacks. Because the emails look legitimate, your vendors, customers, and even employees may not realize anything is wrong. Imagine a vendor receiving an invoice from what appears to be your official email – only to find that the bank details have been changed. By the time fraud is detected, it’s often too late.

Subdomain takeover

Many businesses unknowingly leave behind outdated DNS records when their domain expires. If hackers re-register the domain and match the subdomains, they can create fake login portals, steal credentials, or access internal tools. This can lead to security breaches and significant damage to your brand’s reputation. For example, customers or employees may be tricked into entering their login details into a fraudulent portal that looks identical to your real one.

brand impersonation and fraud from expired domains

Losing control of your domain gives hackers the perfect opportunity to impersonate your brand. They can create a mirror version of your website, complete with fake login pages or checkout portals, and even malware-laden downloads. To unsuspecting customers, everything looks normal, until their personal or financial information is stolen. This kind of brand impersonation can lead to massive financial losses, and regaining customer trust may take months or even years.

seo and reputation poisoning

Your domain’s search engine rankings don’t disappear when it expires. Cybercriminals know this and often use expired domains with strong SEO to flood them with spam content or malware. If your old domain starts hosting scam pages, search engines like Google may blacklist it, making recovery nearly impossible. The damage can be irreversible, and customers searching for your brand could encounter harmful links instead of your legitimate site.

Real-World Cases of Expired Domains Being Exploitation

The risks of expired domains aren’t just theoretical – real companies have fallen victim to them. Here are a couple of examples:

• U.S. Military Subdomain Hijack: In 2021, hackers took control of an expired U.S. military subdomain, setting up fake login pages to steal credentials. The attackers exploited this oversight to access sensitive data, demonstrating how a simple lapse in domain management can jeopardize national security.
• Financial Institution Scam: A well-known bank failed to renew an old domain used for transaction notifications. Hackers seized it and sent phishing emails that looked like legitimate bank communications. Customers who clicked on these emails were directed to fake sites, resulting in stolen financial data and unauthorized transactions.

These cases show that even large, well-established organizations are vulnerable to domain expiration threats.

How an MSP Can Help Protect Your Business from Domain Hijacking

Now that you understand the risks of domain hijacking, it’s important to know how to protect your business. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) like Go2IT can assist you in taking proactive measures to safeguard your domains and prevent cybercriminals from exploiting expired or mismanaged domains:

Enable Auto-Renewal & Multi-Year Registrations

An MSP can help you set up auto-renewal for your domains and advise on multi-year registrations. This ensures that your domains remain under your control and eliminates the risk of accidental expiration. They can also set reminders for domain renewals and track expiration dates, ensuring you never miss a critical renewal.

maintain a domain inventory

If your business owns multiple domains, an MSP can manage and track them in a centralized system. They’ll create an inventory of domains, renewal dates, associated services, and responsible personnel. With the help of tools like Whois Lookup, your MSP can monitor expiration dates and ensure that every domain is properly renewed on time.

secure yor domain Registrar Account

MSPs can help secure your domain registrar account with essential security practices, such as enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) and applying domain locking features to prevent unauthorized transfers. They can also advise on the use of DNSSEC to protect your domain from tampering and ensure that your registration details remain secure.

regularly audit and clean up dns records

Inactive or forgotten subdomains are vulnerable to hijacking. An MSP can conduct regular audits of your DNS records, removing outdated or unused entries. They’ll implement DNS security best practices, such as those offered by Cloudflare, to ensure your DNS setup remains safe and streamlined.

Monitor for Domain Variations and Typosquatting

Hackers often register misspelled variations of your domain (e.g., “yourbusiness.co” instead of “yourbusiness.com”) to exploit your brand. An MSP can provide domain monitoring services like BrandShield or DomainTools to alert you to any new domain registrations that could pose a risk. By tracking potential typosquatting attempts, your MSP can help you take swift action to protect your brand and customers.

Protecting your business’s online identity goes beyond just renewing a domain. It’s about securing your brand, reputation, and customer trust. Expired domains aren’t just a missed renewal; they’re a gateway for cybercriminals to launch phishing attacks, subdomain takeovers, brand impersonation, and SEO poisoning. These threats can lead to financial losses, reputational damage, and compromised customer data.

By partnering with an MSP like Go2IT Group, you can ensure your domains remain protected, minimizing the risks associated with expired or hijacked domains. We take a proactive approach to domain security, helping businesses safeguard their online presence before threats arise. If you need assistance with domain management or a security audit, contact us today – we’ll help keep your business secure from cyber threats.