Domain Hijacking

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. Namefi's tokenization model adds an on-chain ownership layer: the NFT holder in a self-custody wallet controls the asset independently of any single registrar account, so an account compromise at the registrar does not automatically translate into loss of the tokenized representation. Source: ICANN Name Holder FAQs.