The new domain name category is coming to Australia. Not acting now could leave your business or organisation open to fraudulent cyber activity. A shorten .au domain is here, and you should reserve it before it becomes available to the general public.
If you have com.au or net.au or org.au, or any other publicly available domain, act now and contact us so we can help you register for a new .au domain name similar to your current domain name. Anyone will be able to register your .au domain name in just a few months if you will not! For example, if your domain is mybestcompany.com.au, in a few months, anyone will be able to register the domain mybestcompany.au; this may lead to misuse by fraudulent actors or confuse your customers.
From 24 March 2022, anyone with a local connection to Australia (including businesses, associations and individuals) will be able to register a new category of the domain name. These shorter, simpler domain names will end in .au rather than .com.au, .net.au, .org.au, .gov.au or .edu.au. All Australian businesses will have until 20 September to reserve their .au equivalent domain name, and then it becomes available to the general public.
This new category of domain names allows users to register shorter, more memorable online names; however, it also creates another avenue for cybercriminals to conduct fraudulent cyber activities. Opportunistic cybercriminals could register your .au domain name to impersonate your business. For example, if you have registered yourbusiness.com.au, a cybercriminal could register yourbusiness.au or yourbusinesscom.au and use these domains to conduct fraudulent cyber activities.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) recommends that all Australian businesses with existing domain names register their .au equivalents before 20 September 2022. If a business does not reserve its .au equivalent direct domain name during these six months, that name will become available to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.
If you need our help in setting up the domain for you, please get in touch with us. The time is running fast.
Contact us today and protect your data and your customers!