The deadline follows the ability from March 24, 2022 for Australian businesses, associations and individuals to register a new category of domain name. 

These shorter simpler domain names will end in .au rather than .com.au, .net.au, .org.au, .gov.au or .edu.au. 

All Australian businesses will have until 20 September to reserve their au equivalent domain name, before it becomes available to the general public.

Commenting on the change, Pitcher Partners partner of Motor Industry Services, Steve Bragg, said the new category of domain name allows users to register shorter, more memorable online names but it creates another avenue for cybercriminals to conduct fraudulent cyber activities. 

“Opportunistic cybercriminals could register your .au domain name in an attempt to impersonate your business,” he said.

“For example, if you have currently registered yourbusiness.com.au, a cybercriminal could register yourbusiness.au or yourbusinesscom.au and use these domains to conduct fraudulent cyber activities.”

Steve Bragg

Pitcher Partners said that to protect businesses from opportunistic cybercriminals, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) recommends that all Australian businesses with existing domain names register their .au equivalents before September 20, 2022. 

“If a business does not reserve their .au equivalent direct domain before then, that name will become available to the public on a first come, first served basis,” said Mr Bragg.

“Even if you don’t intend to use the domain to conduct business, reserving these addresses will prevent cybercriminals from having the opportunity to impersonate your business with look-alike domains.”

If your business has an existing eligible .au domain name (such as .com.au and .net.au), you have until September 20, 2022 to indicate whether you intend to apply for the exact match of your name in .au direct via the Priority Allocation Process. See: https://www.auda.org.au/au-domain-names/au-direct/priority-allocation-process

“If you do not apply for the exact match of a name it will become available to the general public,” he said.

“Your existing domain names will all continue to operate as normal.”

The national organisation that works on behalf of the internet community, auDA (au.Domain Administration Ltd), said that the new .au post-fix would make it easier to type a web address on mobile devices and was “well suited for a mobile-first digital economy.”

“With more than 200,000 registrations since launch, the Australian community has demonstrated it is eager to embrace shorter, more memorable .au direct domain names,” auDA said.

It said that anyone with an Australian presence is eligible to register a .au direct name, including businesses, organisations and individuals but applying for a .au direct name is optional. 

“It expands existing options people have to register a name in multiple namespaces, for example in com.au, net.au or even .com,” it said.

“Multiple registrants of the same name already co-exist within current .au namespaces, such as abc.net.au, abc.org.au and abc.edu.au which each have different registrants.

“Organisations and individuals choosing not to register a matching .au direct domain name will have their existing domain name continue to operate provided the registration details are kept up-to-date.”

auDA said it takes security of the .au domain seriously. 

“Like existing .au namespaces (e.g. com.au and net.au), auDA ensures multiple protective checks against cybercrime are made for new .au direct registrations including registrant eligibility validation by registrars, post-registration audits, checking against DNS abuse threat intelligence feeds and the availability of a robust complaints process where required,” it said.

“These processes make .au one of the most secure domains in the world, with DNS abuse levels (relating to phishing, malware, botnets and spam) of 0.03 per cent, which is well below the global average.”

By Neil Dowling