Panix.com hijack: Aussie firm shoulders blame

Loopholes, errors, and weekends off

An Australian domain registrar has admitted to its part in last weekend's domain name hijack. of a New York ISP. Melbourne IT says it failed to properly confirm a transfer request for the Panix.com domain.

Ed Ravin, a Panix system administrator, says the Melbourne IT error enabled fraudsters using stolen credit cards to assume control of the domain. Thousands of Panix.com customers lost email access for the duration of the occupation, and many emails will never be recovered.

The mistake was compounded by the unavailability of Melbourne IT staff over the weekend - the company rectified its mistake late on Sunday evening, US time. Speaking to ComputerWorld Ravin said he was unable to contact anyone in support at Melbourne IT until the company's offices opened on Monday morning.

Bruce Tonkin, Melbourne IT's CTO, offered the following explanation:

"In the case of Panix.com, evidence so far indicates that a third party that holds an account with a reseller [UK based Fibranet] of Melbourne IT, fraudulently initiated the transfer. The third party appears to have used stolen credit cards to establish this account and pay for the transfer. That reseller is analysing its logs and cooperating with law enforcement."

A loophole that allowed the error, that caused the problem has now been closed, he added.

The roots of the affair lie in new rules governing the transfer of domain name ownership. These rules, which came into effect last November, mean that inter-registry transfer requests are automatically approved after five days unless countermanded by the owner of a domain.

When ICANN proposed the new procedures, many in the industry warned that as well as making it easier to move domains around, the change would make it easier for people to hijack domains. Network Solutions, for example, took the precautionary step of locking all its customers' domains. Panix.com says its domain name was locked, and that despite this, it was still transferred. ®

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