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Domain Hijacking

The theft of a domain by gaining unauthorized control of its registrar account or registration.

FBFenwei BianAuthorVZVictor ZhouEditorJune 22, 2026
  • glossary

Domain hijacking is the unauthorized seizure of a domain name by an attacker who gains control of the owning registrar account — typically through phishing, credential stuffing, or social engineering against registrar support staff. Once inside the account, the attacker can change nameservers to redirect traffic, disable registry lock protections, or initiate a transfer to lock the legitimate owner out entirely, which is why it often overlaps with outright domain theft. Defenses include enabling a transfer lock, using hardware-key two-factor authentication, opting into registry-level locking for high-value names, and keeping registrar contact details current so recovery emails reach you.

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Contributors

Fenwei Bian

Software Developer & Writer • Namefi
Author

Fenwei Bian is a software developer in her thirties who spends her working hours in pull requests and her weekends with her hands in soil or sawdust. Years of open source on GitHub taught her that names are interfaces: a good one is clear, honest about what it does, and kind to whoever has to use it next.

She gardens because it rewards patience and punishes wishful thinking, and she does woodwork because a joint either fits or it doesn't. Both habits show up in how she writes about naming — measure twice, check the source, and don't sand over a rough spot and hope no one notices.

For Namefi she writes about how domain markets actually move, the practical trade-offs of tokenizing and flipping names, and picking a domain you'll still be glad you own in twenty years.

GitHub

Victor Zhou

Founder & Standards Editor • Namefi
Editor

Victor Zhou is a technology founder and standards editor focused on digital identity and trust. He founded Namefi, edits Ethereum Improvement Proposals, and previously led smart-contract architecture work at Google Labs.

His work sits at the intersection of naming, ownership, and the systems people use to establish identity online. That perspective makes him especially interested in the way names move between personal meaning, public recognition, and digital infrastructure.

For Namefi, Victor edits and writes about domains as durable digital identity: how names become ownable onchain assets, how tokenization changes custody and trust, and what naming can learn from the systems people use to establish identity online.

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