Hostway News & Events

Hostway launches offensive on spammers and cybersquatters with Release of DomainGuard and WhoisProtector

London — 2nd April 2007: Hostway Corporation, a global leader in web hosting and managed services, today launches two services to help companies protect their privacy and security online. Hostway’s WhoisProtector service maintains a company’s privacy on the publicly-accessible domain name registration list held by ICANN, whilst DomainGuard adds an additional layer of security to critical parts of its website, ensuring that only the owner of the site can make or authorise fundamental changes.

“Not all companies are aware that their contact details are held in a publicly accessible database,” said Neil Barton, director, Hostway. “Whilst this is a dream come true for spammers, identity thieves and telemarketers, it can be a headache for domain name holders. The WhoisProtector service lists Hostway’s details instead of the customer company, protecting their privacy and ensuring freedom from spam and cold callers.”

There are currently six domain names which can utilise the WhoisProtector service - .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info and .name. WhoisProtector is available at two levels – ultra and lite, with the former offering full protection and the latter allowing viewers to access the technical and administrative contacts section of the Whois entry on the ICANN site, but protecting the others. Hostway retains records of the original company details for legal reasons.

DomainGuard protects the website from accidental changes to key sections of the site by requiring another level of authentication. It ensures that any changes to key settings including the DNS settings, subdirectory changes and domain name aliases cannot be made without entering a “super-user” password. This ensures that, in the event of a security breach, hackers cannot change core website attributes or cause the complete loss of the website.

“We’ve added these two new tools to improve the armory of corporate websites and help them protect themselves from spammers and cybersquatters,” continued Barton. “Often, companies can feel helpless in the face of spam and hacking. We’ve taken steps to add an electronic moat and portcullis to the existing defences that websites have in place so that website owners can enjoy peace of mind and focus on their core business, rather than losing sleep over privacy concerns.”

Pricing and Availability

WhoisProtector is available from £2.95 per year, as is DomainGuard. For more information, go to www.hostway.co.uk/domains

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Hostway Worldwide
Hostway Corporation (www.hostway.co.uk) provides award-winning web hosting services with eight locations in the US, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Korea, and Australia. Serving customers both small and large, Hostway provides best of breed hosting infrastructure with innovative online tools to help customers broaden their reach and grow their businesses online. Hostway offers a wide range of managed hosting services ranging from Windows and Linux based shared hosting plans, to complete dedicated server and Enterprise managed solutions to now over 400,000 customers worldwide.

For Press Inquiries Contact:
Kewal Varia/Christian Sharp
Spark Communications
020 7436 0420
Kewal@sparkcomms.co.uk
Christian@sparkcomms.co.uk