.Domain hijacking refers to the wrongful taking of control of a domain name from the rightful name holder. It can have a lasting and material impact on a registrant.

The registrant may lose an established online identity and be exposed to extortion by name speculators. Domain hijacking can disrupt or severely impact the business and operations of a registrant.. The above definition appears in a report .Domain Name Hijacking: Incidents, threats, risks, and remedial actions., published recently by the Internet.s Regulating body . ICANN. Examples of .domain hijacking. are: unauthorized modification of a registrant.s information (for example DNS) and unauthorized transfer of a domain registration. Domain hijacking often affects more parties than the rightful name holder: customers, business partners, consumer of services provided by the name holder and even parties wholly unrelated to the name holder are often .collateral damage. to hijacking incidents.