DomainGlossary
intermediateLegal

Domain Hijacking

The unauthorized theft of a domain name through account compromise or social engineering.

Domain hijacking is the unauthorized transfer of a domain name away from its rightful owner, typically through social engineering attacks on registrar support staff, phishing the domain owner's account credentials, or exploiting registrar vulnerabilities. Unlike RDNH (which is a legal tactic), domain hijacking is illegal. High-value domains should use registrar lock, two-factor authentication, and registry-level locks to prevent hijacking.