I am not a user of this particular domain auction house so I didn’t receive any official notice from the company, but according to an article on Australia’s The Age, “computer hackers have penetrated the database of Australia’s biggest internet domain name auction house, possibly accessing client home addresses and encrypted credit card numbers.”
The hacking reportedly happened on Netfleet, a website that specializes in .AU domain names. Netfleet was the venue where the $129,000 USD sale of InvestmentProperty.com.au took place last year, the largest .AU domain sale at the time.
According to the article, Netfleet sent out emails to users informing them of the news. If you received the email from Netfleet, it may be a good idea to contact your credit card company to see if any unauthorized activity has occurred. You may want to see if you can change card numbers just in case.
In addition, if you happen to use the same log in information and password on other websites, you should change your passwords ASAP. It’s never a good idea to use the same password for your auction, registrar, email…etc. accounts for this reason among others.
I wish Netfleet a smooth recovery and hope this serves as a warning for other auction houses and domain platforms to ensure their websites are protected and secure.
At some point in the future laws are going to change all around the world to throw these guys in jail for many, many years…..if they can be caught.
We need stricter laws against hacking…. like cutting off one hand for the first offense and the second hand for the second offense and then prison for 25 years for 3rd and final offense.
For a moment there, I thought it’d be Flippa.
The link to Netfleet is wrong. It is .com.au. 😉