Is your brand name at risk? Important facts to consider about domain names and your brand name

Garry Hornbuckle
Posted By Garry Hornbuckle
January 15, 2012 – 4:31 pm

As you may know, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) last year authorized the creation of .XXX as a new top-level domain (TLD). Launching .XXX was done through a three-phase process, promoted as way to create competition and fairness across adult entertainment companies. The third and final phase – open enrollment – is now in effect.

There has been and will continue to be a lot of hype and, frankly, fear-mongering by some less scrupulous vendors. Basically, their pitch goes like this:

 “Pay us to register www.yourcompany.xxx to protect your brand and good name. If you don’t, well, you never know when someone might create a porn site under your name. Act now! Every day you wait is a day you are at risk.”

Although technically true, this type of implied threat comes dangerously close to “internet blackmail” in our view.

Let’s look at the facts:

  • .XXX is the newest of nearly 400 active top level domains.
  • .XXX was created to make it easier for individuals seeking adult entertainment online to find it, and those who are not interested in such material to avoid it.
  • Like all TLDs, anyone can register “somename.xxx”.  This includes both legitimate use (i.e., “hotporn.xxx”) and cyber-squatters (i.e., “yourbusinessname.xxx”).
  • Cyber-squatting is a contentious business practice, whether it involves XXX or not.
  • The policies, laws, and regulations governing cyber-squatting are complex, vary from country to country, and are an active battleground in the courts. If you are interested in the gory details, http://www.caslon.com.au/domainsprofile13.htm provides a good jumping-off point.
  • In the U.S. and many countries around the world, you can request arbitration under ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). Compared to litigation in U.S. courts, costs are quite low. However, remedies are limited to transfer (from loser to winner) of the domain name, or outright cancellation of the “squatted” domain.
  • In the U.S., you can file suit against cyber-squatters under the Federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) of 1999. ACPA provides for statutory damages up to $100,000 per domain name, or actual damages and profits, plus court costs and legal fees.
  • Perhaps because of the enormous global value of the adult entertainment industry (some estimates suggest that $3,000 – $5,000 per SECOND is spent on porn worldwide), domain name registrars are charging premium prices for .XXX domains. For example, a 5 year registration of www.johnsrepairshop.com retails for $114.95 ($23/year) at Network Solutions, but www.johnsrepairshop.xxx retails for $649.95 ($123/yr) for the same 5 year term.

Should YOU register a .XXX?

It depends:

  • Is it likely that someone would want to operate a legitimate adult entertainment website with the same name as your brand or company? For example, www.realestatenashville.xxx is an unlikely choice for a porn site, whereas www.BestSkinUS.xxx might be more at risk.
  • Do you think that squatters might want to target your brand or company with the intent of selling it back to you (“ransom”)? Clearly, you’d be a greater risk if you have a global brand and deep pockets, like Coke or Apple. Is there a personal or political reason someone might target your brand or company for financial gain: www.joesmithforgovernor.xxx, or www.yourcompanynamesucks.xxx ?
  • If your customers stumbled upon www.yourcompany.xxx, is there a meaningful risk they’d believe that you operate a porn site as a sideline business? Aren’t they more likely to realize that the overlap is coincidental or that someone is trying to take advantage of you?
  • When looking at search results, are prospects likely to get the wrong impression or make the wrong choice if they see listings for both www.yourcompany.com and www.yourcompany.xxx listed? Or are they more likely to choose the .COM link and move on?
  • If you found that someone had registered your company or brand name as a .XXX site, would you be willing and able to commit the resources required to litigate? Would you have time and resources available for arbitration?
  • How effective is your current domain name registration position? Could you benefit more by adding registrations under .INFO, .BIZ, and .CO (for less money) than under .XXX?
  • How well does you current site perform in SEO rankings? Is your content fresh and authoritative? Would legitimate search results overwhelm whatever www.yourcompany.xxx links that might exist? Remember, the best defense is a good offense.

These questions should be considered as a part of your overall strategy for establishing, promoting and maintaining your online brand identity. Domain name coverage beyond www.yourcompany.com can be beneficial, both in terms of brand protection and in link-building; so are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, FourSquare, and other social media outlets.

We’re happy to discuss your online brand presence at any time, including questions about .XXX. And yes, if you want to lock-down your .XXX, we’re happy to help. But don’t succumb to high-pressure sales tactics or email scare campaigns.

Posted in Business, Design & Development | Comments (0)

Client Profile: Zander Insurance

admin
Posted By admin
December 19, 2011 – 11:40 am

Zander Insurance Group, the country’s largest independent insurance broker, is Dave Ramsey’s choice for term life insurance, disability insurance, and id theft protection. For the past five years, bytes of knowledge has actively maintained, recently redesigned and developed this fast growing website. Other services include social media consulting, blog development and providing graphics assistance to external email marketing campaigns. Zander Insurance Group

Posted in Design & Development, General Thoughts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

tips and tricks for a safer internet experience

bok engineering team
Posted By bok engineering team
June 29, 2011 – 2:27 pm

In recent months we’ve noticed a remarkable growth in the number of systems requiring treatment due to virus infections and/or threats after accessing the internet. Below you will find steps you can take to help keep your system safe.

Though the message you see on your screen may seem harmless, the background effects can cause trouble, including the possible elimination of all data on your system.

The most common viruses or threats pose as antivirus software that claim to have detected viruses on your system that need to be removed. Oftentimes, the virus requests that you enter your credit card number to purchase the software.

Though precautions are being taken to place more stringent policies on the firewalls for our customers with engineering services, and making sure the antivirus software has the latest updates and systems are patched with the latest Windows updates, we feel we need to also take more precautions to make sure that how you access the internet is also secured.

What you can do

bytes of knowledge recommends everyone do as much as they can to assist:

  1. Practice caution when working with files and/or internet sites from unknown or questionable sources.
  2. Do not open email attachments if you do not recognize the sender. (Although you could get viruses via email from those you know).
  3. Be sure that link you’re about to click in an email actually goes where you think it should. You can find this by rolling your cursor over the link and taking note of what appears in the bottom of your screen.
  4. Download files only from reputable internet sites.
  5. Use internet browsers with more security features (see below).

We’ve had effective results with those that switch from using Microsoft Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox (www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/) with an add-on called “NoScript” (addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript). Many times, it is the scripts that run on the internet pages that allow the viruses entrance in to the system.

The combination of Firefox with NoScript blocks harmful scripts from installing or running in the background of your system if a harmful website is accessed. If the website you access is a trusted site then the scripts needed to access the site will work.

No single application or device can block 100% of viruses and other threats. bytes of knowledge strives to combine the following strategies to ensure reduction of virus/threats to your technology environment so that you can be more productive:

  1. More stringent firewall policies
  2. Antivirus software and Windows updates are current
  3. Internet browsers used offer more security features

For some customers who have Managed Services or have already seen the impact of these viruses/threats this summer, we have already begun to deploy Mozilla Firefox with the NoScript add-on.

If you would like more information on bytes of knowledge’s services and recommendations to detect, remediate viruses and threats before they affect your network and decrease your productivity, please contact us today: 615.383.9005 or help@bytesofknowledge.com.

Posted in General Thoughts | Comments (0)

Will I really b-ok?

Mel Taylor
Posted By Mel Taylor
January 13, 2011 – 12:49 pm

When deciding on a career move, it is a good time to stop and assess.  Assess who you are and how your experience has shaped you.  It’s a good time to assess what you are good at and where your skills lie and, most importantly for me, I ask myself “well, who do I want to spend the majority of my waking day with?”.

So when the opportunity arose for me to launch the Communications and Virtual Media division of bytes of knowledge I asked myself all these questions and came up with some interesting discoveries.  So yes, I love my career experience to date – 20 years in Live Television and Communications – it’s been a blast, which means I have pretty much been there, seen it, done it!  I know I find creative solutions to the most challenging of problems and I know I love working with smart people, from entrepreneurs and Fortune 100 Executives to front line staff.  I also know that there is a smarter, better way for businesses to use technology to communicate with their workforce, their customers, their partners and bring everyone together to hear the same message, not at one central location but rather from their desktop, their laptop…nowadays they can fully participate in an event as it is possible for them to be ‘Virtually There’.  I have seen it, created it and delivered it.

So, I know I love what I do and have unique skills to share, and now that I am here at bytes of knowledge, I am really looking forward to working with the client base that spans a variety of industries, from small entrepreneurs to public traded companies, from retail to government.

There’s no doubt the best endorsements come from happy and loyal customers and the customers I spoke with had a common message to share with me – bytes of knowledge, delivers results.  No matter what the request, they can meet all of their technology needs in house; creatively and cost effectively.  Some businesses don’t mind shopping around for several service providers but in this market, most prefer to reduce the need for multiple suppliers, contracts and associated overheads.  Each time they need work done they want to have a solid go-to kind of resource that they know they’ll always get value and great service from.  This resource is bytes of knowledge.  Time is money and once you find value, it makes sense to come back and use it again and again and that’s what made me realize that this was the right move for me.  I was able to be part of a dynamic team, that had a proven track record and a bunch of very happy recurring customers.  They were OK and I would B-OK.

Posted in Business, General Thoughts, Virtual Communications | Comments (0)

Social Media, aka the ‘Wild Wild West of IT’

Tina Petroski
Posted By Tina Petroski
January 5, 2011 – 4:27 pm

Additional credit: Sharon Frazier.   — It can be said that social media today is the ‘Wild Wild West of IT.’  This frontier encompasses not only promotional and advertising wilderness for businesses and their owners but also operational risk, from employee use along both productivity and technology impact fronts.  There are camps for both sides of employee use.  Employees are representatives of the business and can harness genuine connections with customers or prospects, even though these connections are not always positive.  And on the other side of the coin, the productivity drain may not offset the value of the employee presence.  In both cases, however, viruses and other malware can inadvertently be introduced to the employee’s computer or company network through employees visiting these websites potentially causing expensive downtime and data loss for the business.

With careful planning and policy guidelines, a company may be able to leverage social media to successfully promote its business and still control the risks found inherently in social website access. Specific strategies, explanations and principles are invaluable to institute the culture shift required to control the risk.  The first step is to add a policy to the employee handbook detailing acceptable use.  Openness about concerns of loss of productivity, overburdening of network resources and potential data loss is essential.  The policy should explain not only the risks, but also how behavior on these sites is a direct reflection of the business and can potentially impact a company’s reputation.

Regarding technology impact, you can institute security measures to reduce the social media footprint on your infrastructure.  Firewalls and Antivirus software are two basic ways to increase security.  For example, you may choose to control or limit access to social websites during peak work hours through firewall configuration.  Or choose to limit access to certain sites based on site content.  Or limit the amount of bandwidth one computer or employee is authorized to use.  Additionally, some firewalls or software can provide more detailed reporting on web activity on a daily, weekly or monthly basis to give you greater visibility.  Many times, employee knowledge of policy and monitoring are a sufficient deterrent to extraneous web activity.  Antivirus software (corporate editions) should also be installed on workstations, laptops and servers to protect the network against viruses or malware sometimes found embedded in social media sites.

Social media is currently a playground for marketing professionals.  How many fans your company has on Facebook or how many followers your CEO has on Twitter may indicate the popularity of your business.  Social media can be used for coordinating specific demographic advertising, driving more traffic to the actual business website.  The success of integrating social media into your marketing or promotional portfolio depends on the genuineness of your presence and interactions.  Due to the anonymity of the web experience, many of the users of these sites are not shy about giving you instant feedback about their experiences dealing with your company.  Acknowledging both positive and negative feedback demands finesse and a deliberate, open business strategy embraced by all employees engaged in the social media space.

bytes of knowledge has the experience and the know-how to help you explore and navigate the social media landscape.  From the marketing or promotional aspects to technology operations, we can be your Lewis and Clark (or whomever was a wild, wild west leader!).

Posted in Business, Computer Networks | Comments (0)

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