Internet.com, the online magazine, had its domain name nicked last week. And TUCOWS.com, Canada's answer to Andover.Net, played an unwitting but key role in the hijack.

Internet.com is a big name URL, owned by a big name company. So how on earth did the person, or persons unknown, think he could get away with hijacking the domain name? Unless it was done for devilment. Just as well the hijacker did not attempt to redirect traffic. That way a prison sentence lies.

The new owner of Internet.com is listed as BCS Inc, of Montreal, and the registrar of record is TUCOWs, according to several "whois" databases, Internet.com CEO Alan Meckler said, in an interview with Reuters.

"We are shocked by the whole thing," Meckler said. "We don't know if we were hacked or Network Solutions was hacked."

The hijacker obtained an unauthorised change of adminstrative contact from Network Solutions, Darryl Green, TUCOWS.com business development manager, told Reuters.

Armed with this false identity, the hijacker changed the registrar of record from NSI to TUCOWS. The thief then transferred ownership of several Internet.com addresses to BCS Inc (presumed by Reuters to be a fake identity).

NSI, the world's biggest registrar of domain names, is investigating the incident. ®