fTLD announced on September 16, 2020 the offering of Registry Lock, a security service through participating fTLD-Approved Registrars, providing an even higher level of protection to .Bank/.INSURANCE domain names. When enabled, Registry Lock prevents any unauthorized modifications or updates to domain names and their DNS to mitigate the potential for domain hijacking, and inadvertent or unintended deletions, transfers and/or updates.
Well known security resources have published helpful information to understand the benefits of Registry Lock including Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security, The SSL Store, Interisle Consulting Group’s Domain Security – A Critical Component of Enterprise Risk Management and the Internet Society in its publication of its Online Trust Audit Methodology. FDIC Guidance also highlights the value of domain locks[1] to prevent specific kinds of attacks. For a nominal annual fee, Registry Lock on an organization’s most valuable domain names offers heightened protection that effectively neutralizes any attempts by bad actors to social engineer your domain Registrar and compromise your domain name(s). Pricing is subject to each fTLD-Approved Registrar’s pricing policies and practices as such you should contact your registrar for more information.
[1] The Guidance references Registrar domain locks however, Registry Lock offers the highest level of protection as Registrar’s system can be compromised.