Domain hijacking is not something that happens when you drive into the wrong side of town.  No gang bangers here, trying to jack your vehicle for financial gain.

Domain hijacking is the process by which domain names are stolen from the rightful registrant.  The way to pull it off is to trick the domain name register into allowing the hijacker to change the registration information so that they can steal control of the domain name from the legitimate owner.

The most recent case of domain hijacking I can remember, is what happened to graphic designer, David Airey.  A domain name thief gained access to David’s e-mail account, then used that account to gain access to his account with his domain name register.

Reverse domain hijacking is another shady practice you have to watch out for in the web hosting world.  It is the practice of unseating domain name registrants by accusing them of violating weak or non-existent trademarks as it relates to the domain name they want to take from you.

This is a fight to look forward to when your company and another company might share the same want or need for a particular domain name.  Back in 2002, Nissan Motors, the Japanese car manufacturer, was suing Uzi Nissan, the then current owner of nissan.com for $10 million.  As you can see, they had conflicting interests here.

The thing that can be remembered in both of these situations, if be very careful to monitor your domain name registrations and be sure your own information as it relates to the registration is secure.