The update of the sahibinden.com domain has been forgotten.

The update of the sahibinden.com domain has been forgotten.

SBYS.NET / TÜRKİYE

Sahibinden.com made a non-transparent statement. Why do we say non-transparent? Because the statement acknowledges a technical issue with the domain company, but it lacks details regarding the type of technical problem.

This morning, we woke up to the disappearance of sahibinden.com, one of the largest sites in our country.

Chaos ensued, everyone is debating. What are they saying? For instance, "Has the domain been transferred to someone else, and will millions of dollars be demanded?" or "Was it a cyberattack, perhaps?"

In response, sahibinden.com made the non-transparent statement mentioned above. Why do we call it non-transparent? Because the statement mentions a technical issue with the domain company, but there is no information about the nature of the technical problem. Therefore, we believe that the delay was forgotten.

Even if they don't disclose it, information about what happened is already available on the internet. In the domain name detail image provided at the bottom, you can see who owns the sahibinden.com domain. Here are some details you can find from any domain research site:

1. The sahibinden.com domain was purchased from the domain-selling company called Network Solutions on December 30, 1999.
2. In January, the domain (probably because the payment wasn't made) was put on hold. (If it had been acquired earlier, we would have been informed.) When noticed, probably two years' worth of payment was made.
3. There seems to be a privacy request because the contact points show addresses belonging to Perfect Privacy, a Florida-based subsidiary of Network Solutions.
4. There is a "Transfer prohibition" on the domain (ICANN definition).

Here are two issues that have been widely discussed today but are not mentioned here:

1. Even if domains expire, they cannot be immediately sold. There is a 90-day period, which may vary from registrar to registrar. If it's still unpaid after that, then it can be sold. Because, as seen in today's example, this is a business. This business's address is sahibinden.com. You lease it annually from a registrar firm, but if you miss the leasing period, the registrar firm cannot just say, "Okay, you're out." There are international rules and dispute resolution bodies. If you have been using a domain for a certain number of years, you also have rights over it.
2. Even if you exceed the time limit, the amount you'll pay won't be millions of dollars. It doesn't change based on the quality of the domain or other factors. Depending on the extension of the address you obtained (like com, net, org, tv, etc.), there's a rental fee of $15-30. When overdue, a late fee is added, but it's also around $3-5.

Companies should manage domain names through a group account, not an individual's account.

Today's issue is not very problematic, and it was resolved within a day, around the time business hours opened in the US (around 4 PM Turkey time). But there are other incidents concerning domain names of other firms. On this occasion, let's give a warning to companies through lawyer Mehmet Ali Köksal:

"In many cases we've dealt with, we've encountered problems where domain name accounts are managed by former IT employees, and moreover, they are managed via personal email addresses rather than corporate accounts. Hence, I'd like to remind companies not to manage these domain accounts with any employee's personal address. If such a situation exists, they should immediately change it and even link it to a group address that is accessible by multiple authorized individuals in IT, such as [email protected], instead of assigning it to an employee-specific address like [email protected]. Otherwise, they may encounter problems such as checking/reviewing an address belonging to a former employee, causing personal data/privacy issues or having to guess/reactivate an account that belonged to a closed or former employee."

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