Makeuseof(domain) gets hacked, then blackmailed for $2000

I’m sure all of you might have already read this. But I can’t stop writing about it, just because this is so scary, and I want to pledge my support to Aibek and team at Makeuseof. I hope they’ll be able to bring back the blog asap.

And in the temporary blog, Mark posts that the thief is someone from Dubai, called Ali Ferank.

This is what he did.

– Called up GoDaddy impersonating Aibek and demanded a domain transfer.

It’s “scary” to know that GoDaddy did that in less than an hour ! Do they normally do it that quick ?

The thief might have already got into the email id to which the domain account at GoDaddy was attached to to accomplish this.

- He got the domain name pointing to his server at namecheap.

- Emails Aibek and team for a price ($2000) to restore the domain.

- Aibek and team denies and is still fighting with GODaddy to complete their investigation and restore the blog back.

What can you and me learn from this?

GoDaddy is good, but not quite safe. I mean if some impersonator calls up claiming to be your domains admin and demands a change, they get it done in less than an hour? That’s completely insane. I haven’t seen such quick turnaround from them for my services.

Track the story here.

Picture courtesy: Kwout

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