Protect your business identity, now

The new .au domain launched for Australian websites in March, and small businesses have been urged to register their .au name, or risk impersonators snapping it up.

The ’Priority Allocation Period’ ends on September 20, at which point any untaken .au domains will be first come, first serve.

For example, Google, which currently holds the website google.com.au, has google.au reserved, but if it hasn’t purchased the domain by 20 September, anyone can take it.

Ballan’s Genesis FX is an Associate Member of .au Domain Administration Limited (auDA), which develops and administers the rules for domain names in the .au country code.

Genesis FX Manager Patrick Bonello said the new domain name offered a range of benefits.

“The .au domain name will allow for a wider choice of available website names, and allow users to register shorter and more memorable names that are easier to display on mobile devices,” he said.

“A domain name ending in .au signifies that the person or organisation using it has a connection to Australia. In .au we have several different namespaces serving different sectors and purposes and with different rules for who can register them and what name they can have.”

Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Bruce Billson, implored small businesses to act quickly before or as 20 September comes around, to protect their brand and identity on the internet.

“I implore all small business owners to take a few minutes to work out if they want the shortened .au domain or will be unhappy for someone else to have it”, Mr Billson said.

“If you want it, small business owners, I urge you to take a few minutes and few dollars to register it or potentially face someone else grabbing it and using it to digitally ambush your business, to demand big dollars later to surrender it to you, or misuse it to masquerade as you or to help them engage in cyber-crime.

“I’m not surprised so few people know about this as the public awareness campaign has been less than impactful, but I want to make sure small businesses avoid a horrible surprise when they find someone else is using or misusing the shortened version of their key digital asset being their domain name.”

Mr Billson wrote to auDA asking the deadline to be extended, but said his request was rejected.

“The deadline needs to be significantly extended,” he argued.

“We are not unhappy about the introduction of the .au domain but these crucial internet addresses should be available to the right people first and they should properly be notified about the change and given reasonable time to act.

For more information on .au domain names, visit /www.auda.org.au/au-domain-names or locally, contact Patrick from GenesisFX via email – [email protected]