The World’s First Internet Domain Name Provider Confirms Data Breach

The fifth-largest internet domain name provider confirms data breach

Network Solutions was the world's first internet domain provider, having won a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) back in 1991 and given an exclusive contract to be the sole name registrar for the .com, .net and .org domains a year later. 

According to DomainState, Networks Solutions, now owned by Web.com, is currently the fifth-largest domain name registrar accounting for close on seven million domains. 

Along with another domain name registrar, Register.com, and parent Web.com, Network Solutions has confirmed it has been hacked. Here's everything that is known so far.

When did the data breach occur?

On October 30, Web.com confirmed that all three registrars had been the victim of a data breach in August 2019. The same disclosure notice, with just the organization name changed, was published across all three sites to users attempting to log into their accounts.

This explained that, on October 16, the company had "determined that a third-party gained unauthorized access to a limited number of our computer systems in late August 2019, and as a result, account information may have been accessed."

Was credit card data compromised?

The statement went on to state that no credit card data was compromised during the incident that has been reported to federal authorities.

The notice confirmed that credit card numbers are stored in a PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant encryption standard, which means the company does not "believe your credit card information is vulnerable as a specific result of this incident." It does, however, encourage customers to monitor their card accounts and notify the credit card provider if any suspicious charges are found.