Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson interview with Leon Byner.
5AA Adelaide
6 September 2022
Subject: internet domain name changes
Leon Byner
If you’re a small business, and it doesn’t matter whether you work from an office or home and maybe your home is your office, you’ve got less than a fortnight to do one thing to stop your Internet identity being stolen. So, let’s talk to the Small Business Ombudsman, who does a tremendous job, to give you some very helpful advice. Bruce Billson. Bruce, good morning.
Bruce Billson
Leon, fab to be with you and your listeners.
Leon Byner
Tell everybody what they need to do to protect their identity in terms of having a small business.
Bruce Billson
What they need to do is ask themselves, would I be troubled if someone pinched my address but in a shortened version? Let’s think about 5AA.com.au. Up until the 20th of this month, so in a fortnight, 5AA get a chance to register 5AA.au. So, you take the com out, you take the net out. It’s a shortened version.
But the period where the owners of the longer address have priority access to the shorter version runs out on the 20th. After that, there’s an opportunity for other people to buy the shortened address. And I’m saying to small and family businesses, it is not in your interest to have someone go and pinch a shortened version of the digital identity you’ve invested time, money, built customer relationships with. It’s a good time to take a few minutes and protect your interests.
Leon Byner
Can you explain why this is changing?
Bruce Billson
Well, I can. What’s happened around many developed economies Leon, and a lot of businesses thinking about dealing with their customers through mobile devices, online shopping, those sorts of things. The idea was a shortened address would be easier for mobile transactions. And as you and I would pick up, given the gentleman that we are, it’s mildly funkier as well.
So, there’s a bit of interest in having access to the shortened version and what the non-government regulator that oversees domain name administration in Australia has sought to do, is to make that available for people that want it. But, a limited window in which those with existing domain names can go and reserve the shortened version of the domain name they have now and not risk someone else pinching that, perhaps wanting to flog it to them for many times the amount that the original person paid for it, or worse still, trying to emulate your site and open up another risk in terms of cyber security.
Leon Byner
All right. So, your advice to people who do any kind of transactional communication where it’s vital to their wellbeing or business, what do you think they should do?
Bruce Billson
Well, I think the first thing they should do Leon is take a few minutes to think, would I be troubled by someone having the shortened version of my domain name? And if the answer is yes, then go and spend a few minutes, and a few dollars and reserve that domain name for yourself before the 20th of September. Otherwise, there’s a risk someone else might purchase it without your interest at heart and perhaps come back to you and offer to sell it back, or worse still, emulate your website for someone else’s commercial advantage, leaving the small and family business disadvantaged.
Leon Byner
A lot of people will ask Bruce, why is this happening?
Bruce Billson
Well, I actually asked the question, why doesn’t the people administering this process let people know it’s happening? You know, it’s been attractive to some in Canada, in the United States and in New Zealand and elsewhere. I think the UK’s also offered that shortened version of domain name.
And, you know, people think, well, there’s my business name, .au that lets people know I’m in Australia. Ditch the .com. ditch the .net. Some people are attracted to that Leon and so that opportunity is available. My concern is this transition period for people that they’ve invested in their domain names, in their websites. The longer web address may well be compromised by not having their interests protected by reserving the shortened version.
So, you know, there’s an argument that it’s attractive, it might be easier on mobile devices. I mean, I get all that. But if, you know, I’m 5AA.com.au, I don’t want someone else pinching 5AA.au, perhaps misrepresenting them as me, or offering to sell me that domain name at a very significant price.
Leon Byner
Alright, so your advice to anyone who will be affected by this is?
Bruce Billson
Check it out. Do you want the shortened domain name? Act quickly. Act within the next fortnight. Reserve it for yourself. Use that priority allocation window. Otherwise, there’s a risk that the general public, someone else, will get access to it and that may well not be in your interests.
Leon Byner
I suspect you’ve already had a bit of feedback on this, Bruce.
Bruce Billson
I have had a lot of people say, why don’t we know about this? I actually went to the non-government regulator and said, Look, I don’t think anybody I’ve run into knows that this change is happening. You should extend that priority window for at least a year and get involved in a really active public education information campaign.
They declined my overtures Leon. Who would have thought? So, we thought, the most constructive thing we can do is get up and about and try and make people aware of it because of our concerns about the impact it will have on small and family businesses if someone else goes and pinches the shortened domain name.
Leon Byner
So again, let’s just repeat the advice as to what to do to protect your interests.
Bruce Billson
Check out whether you want your domain name in its shortened version to go to somebody else. If you don’t think that’s a good idea, reserve it for yourself. Do so by the 20th of this month and make use of the direct priority allocation window that’s shutting in a fortnight.
Leon Byner
Why are we getting rid of that priority window, by the way?
Bruce Billson
Oh, well, this is part of the implementation that the non-government regulator thought was appropriate. A bit of a window where you could have the shortened version like-for-like allocated to the people that hold the longer one. And then after that it’s open slather. I thought that window should have been longer and a far more effective public awareness campaign was needed, but that didn’t happen.
So, we’re doing all we can just to make your audience, your listeners and the small and family businesses of South Australia aware of this change and encouraging them, urging them Leon, to take steps to protect their interests.
Leon Byner
Jane, obviously people listening understand, she says, for example, this is a stupid idea. The crims will just take over the old website addresses and that will confuse everybody. Bad move. Do you agree?
Bruce Billson
Yeah, I do. I do. I’ve seen the Cyber Security Centre for Australia also put out a warning that this is a risky period because it opens the door for others to emulate legitimate businesses and cut off traffic, maybe get personal information they shouldn’t have access to. That’s why we were so keen to have that priority allocation period extended. That has not been agreed to so here we are trying to urge people to protect their own interest and reserve those shortened domain names for themselves.
Leon Byner
Bruce Billson, thank you. Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman just giving you a fair warning as to protecting your interests and that of many customers, I suspect, if you’ve got a successful business.
ENDS
