Domain name
Domain name: The human-readable address of a website or email domain, such as example.com.
Your domain is the name customers type, click and see in email. Everything else in domain trust is built on it.
Domain registrationDomain trust glossary
The words you meet when you register a domain, set up DNS, add SSL and secure email, each defined in a sentence or two, with why it matters for keeping your domain trusted.
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Registrar
Registrar: A company that registers domain names on behalf of their owners with the registry for each ending, such as .com.
The registrar holds the registration, the renewal date and the transfer lock for your domain.
Domain transferRegistrar lock
Registrar lock: A setting, also called a transfer lock, that stops a domain from being transferred to another registrar.
It protects the domain from being moved away without the owner's approval.
Domain transferEPP code
EPP code: An authorization code, also called an auth code, that the current registrar gives the domain owner to approve a transfer.
No transfer can start without it, which is why only the owner should have it.
Domain transferWHOIS
WHOIS: A public lookup service that shows registration details for a domain, such as the registrar and dates.
Without privacy, WHOIS can expose an owner's name, email address and phone number.
WHOIS privacyRDAP
RDAP: The Registration Data Access Protocol, the structured successor to WHOIS for looking up domain registration data.
RDAP is how registration data is now published, so privacy has to cover it too.
CertPing RDAPDNS
DNS: The Domain Name System, which translates a domain name into the addresses of the servers for its website and email.
DNS decides where your website loads and where your email is delivered.
Managed DNSDNSSEC
DNSSEC: DNS Security Extensions, which add digital signatures to DNS records so resolvers can check that answers weren't altered.
It makes it harder to send visitors to a fake server by tampering with DNS answers.
Managed DNS with DNSSECSSL/TLS certificate
SSL/TLS certificate: A digital certificate that lets a website use HTTPS, encrypting the connection and proving the site belongs to its domain.
Browsers warn visitors on sites without a valid certificate.
SSL certificatesCertificate authority
Certificate authority: An organization trusted by browsers to issue SSL/TLS certificates after checking that the requester controls the domain.
A certificate only works if a trusted authority issued it. CertPing uses authorities such as Let's Encrypt and is not one itself.
SSL certificatesACME
ACME: The Automatic Certificate Management Environment, a standard protocol for requesting, validating and renewing certificates automatically.
ACME is what makes automatic SSL renewal possible.
Automatic SSL renewalCertificate transparency
Certificate transparency: Public, append-only logs where certificate authorities record the certificates they issue.
Anyone can search the logs to see which certificates exist for a domain.
SPF
SPF: Sender Policy Framework, a DNS record that lists the servers allowed to send email for a domain.
It lets receiving servers spot mail sent from servers you never authorized.
Email securityDKIM
DKIM: DomainKeys Identified Mail, which signs outgoing email with a key published in the domain's DNS.
A valid signature shows the message came from your domain and wasn't changed in transit.
Email securityDMARC
DMARC: Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance, a DNS record that tells receiving servers what to do with mail that fails SPF and DKIM.
A DMARC policy of quarantine or reject is what turns SPF and DKIM into protection against spoofing.
Email spoofing protectionLook-alike domain
Look-alike domain: A domain registered to resemble a real one, using a typo, a swapped character, an added word or another ending.
Look-alikes are the raw material of phishing pages and fake invoices.
Phishing domain detectionTyposquatting
Typosquatting: Registering a misspelled version of a real domain to catch people who mistype or misread it.
Visitors who land on a typosquatted domain often can't tell it apart from the real one.
Typosquatting detection