New Shorter .au Direct Domain Names Available for Australian Businesses & Organisations
Starting with March 2022, Australian internet users have the possibility to register .au direct domain names. These are part of a new category of domain names that are simpler and easier to remember – business-name.au instead of business-name.com.au or .net.au.
For Australian businesses, this is great news because it makes it easier to promote a digital brand. Plus, until 20 September 2022, you still have the right to reserve the .au equivalent of a domain name you already own (as long as you can prove ownership).
For instance, if you own mybusiness.com.au, you can register mybusiness.au. However, if you don’t take advantage of this opportunity before 20 September, the domain names will become available to the public, and anyone can register the domain name.
Opportunity & Cyber Threat
According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), cybercriminals are betting on the fact that many businesses and organizations don’t know about this opportunity or don’t want to act on it.
Therefore, once the domain names become publicly available, ill-intended actors will take advantage and grab as many business and organization .au domain names as possible. This way, it will be easier to impersonate these businesses online and trick their customers into handing in their data or money.
The ACSC classifies this threat as low risk. However, our years of experience in working with Australian businesses say differently. The risk is real, and we’ve seen many successful hacking events when cybercriminals spoofed sending emails from a domain name that looked very similar to the business. In fact, even the staff will fall for this type of hacking!
For more about how to prevent spoofing/phishing attacks, check out this article.
How to Keep Your Business Safe
The best thing you can do to avoid such a grim scenario is to register all the .au domains that are of interest to your brand and digital reputation. And, if you don’t have the time or the disposition to go through the process, Onsite Helper’s experts are ready to help! Furthermore, Onsite Helper sells domain names and can register all your business .au domain names without any mistakes. This way, you know your domain names are safe, and you can invest your time more efficiently.
Plus, our team can assist with forwarding the new .au domain name to your website and emails. This way, if someone looking for your brand forgets to include the .com in the domain name, they’ll still be able to reach you (e.g., onsitehelper.com.au & onsitehelper.au will be going to the same website, and emails would be forwarded).
Act Now!
Keep in mind that there’s little time left before all .au domain names become available to the public, and the “first come, first served” rule will apply. So, give us a call or send us an email today, and we’ll help you sort everything out in no time!
