Domain Industry News

Nominations Open for 2022 Lonnie Borck Memorial Award

The Lonnie Borck Memorial Award honors was established to honor someone who has made “an exceptional contribution to fostering a sense of community within the domain name industry.” The award was established to honor the memory of Lonnie Borck, a domain investor and friend of mine who passed away in 2016.

The Internet Commerce Association will be awarding this year’s award in person at NamesCon. The ICA has opened the nomination process for this year’s Award, and any member of the domain name industry can submit a nomination. ICA Members will then elect the top three candidates, and the winner will be chosen from the top three by the ICA Board.

Dynadot Website Down Due to DDOS Attack

If you had trouble accessing the Dynadot website this morning, it is because the company is currently under a DDOS attack. The company posted a notice about the DDOS attack several hours ago on Twitter. Dynadot’s engineering team is working on a solution:

“Domaining.com has been apparently compromised”

According to a tweet from the Twitter account of Domaining.com, the Domaining.com website may have been compromised. I have not independently confirmed the veracity of the tweet:

I do not have details about what information may have been accessed, but I would imagine a big concern for Domaining.com users is passwords. Users with accounts on Domaining.com should strongly consider changing duplicate passwords on other services. In addition, other industry service providers should be aware of this issue to be on the lookout for logins that may be utilizing duplicate passwords.

It is always advisable to not reuse passwords on different websites and platforms. You might also consider using different logins when possible. In addition, using 2 factor authentication is always recommended.

I hope Francois provides more information about this and highlights this on Domaining.com so more people are made aware of the issue.

If I learn more about this, I will share it.

Donuts Hiring Business Development Manager

If you or someone you know is looking for a job in the domain name business, Donuts posted a job opening for a Business Development Manager position. Donuts owns and operates just shy of 250 domain name extensions, including .Live, .Lawyer, .Fitness, and many more. The job listing can be viewed on LinkedIn.

There is no domain industry experience required for this sales-focused position, but I presume some level of domain name knowledge would be helpful. A great deal of the job emphasis is on helping partners sell the company’s domain names. Here’s an excerpt about the candidate Donuts is seeking to hire:

Escrow.com Sends Epik Security Breach Password Reset Email

This morning on NamePros, a user named astrade shared an email he received from Escrow.com suggesting that a password reset may be necessary due to the “security breach at domain registrar Epik.” The email suggests that the recipient change the password for the account at Escrow.com. Another email shared on NamePros by an Escrow.com customer indicates that Escrow.com automatically reset the user’s password.

I reached out to Jackson Elsegood, General Manager at Escrow.com, and he confirmed that the email was sent by Escrow.com. I also asked Jackson who, in general, received this password reset email.

Here’s what Jackson told me:

Dan.com Awards 5 Domain Investors


This afternoon at NamesCon, Dan.com announced five domain industry achievement awards for 2021. The awards were given in the following categories to five deserving individuals:

  • Most data-driven domainer of the year 2021 – Nikhail Jain
  • Most community-driven domainer of the year 2021 – Leanne McMahon
  • Best newTLD domain investor of the year 2021 – Swetha Yenugula
  • Best ccTLD domain investor of the year 2021 – Nils Buurman
  • Best .com domain investor of the year 2021 – Ehren Schaiberger

Congratulations to these five domain investors on their success. The recognition in front of peers at NamesCon is well deserved.

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