Richard Branson and his company the Virgin Group are once again making waves in the business world but instead of engaging in a new battle with companies like British Airlines, Branson and Virgin are engaged in a virtual battle over the domain name richardbranson.xxx.

With the release of the new .XXX domain name in December of 2011, Branson was shocked to see that his name was registered like so many other celebrities and his name richardbranson.xxx was now online. Eager to protect his name and other Virgin intellectual properties his company filed a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum, an organization that oversees domain name disputes.

It Can Happen To Anyone

The domain was registered by an Australian resident on December 10^th 2011 who most likely intended to become a cybersquatter and hold the domain name for ransom until he received a very large payoff from Virgin.

Any cybersquatter knows how much domain names like richardbranson.xxx are worth and jump at the chance to register them when new domain name extensions are released. Richard Branson is lucky though because this .XXX domain name hasn’t been pointed to a porn website like so many other new .XXX domain names have been.

What’s next for Branson?

Virgin has a good case and will most likely be given the domain name if they can prove that it wasn’t registered in good faith. Branson’s case should be a wakeup call to celebrities and business owners around the world who want to protect their brand online and best interests.

Even though the average person or company has to spend money initially to protect their best interests online by registering all of the domain name extensions that apply to their name or brand, the cost is minimal compared to the potential long term financial damages that could result from dealing with a cybersquatter.

In less than 5 minutes, that can all change.  Here is a step-by-step guide to setting up a permanent, flexible, and secure password management solution:

Step 1: Download KeePass.  Choose the Portable KeePass 2.xx version.

Step 2: Extract to a directory of your choosing.  Then run it – you may want to create a desktop or taskbar shortcut.

Step 3: Enter a master account password – choose something new, this is the one password you will ever need to know from now on.  Add one entry (the key icon).

Step 4: This is the powerful step that allows you to access your passwords from all machines and anywhere you happen to be.  Choose file > save as > save to URL.  Enter your ftp details.

Even if you don’t have a server, your ISP likely has given you some space to store a personal page or files.  If you don’t know your ftp details, contact your ISP or network administrator.  ** Choose an easy to remember location.

How it works: Whenever you open KeePass it will access the file on your server.  Whenever you save the file it will upload the newest save to the server.  From now on, from any machine, your passwords will be updated in real time and you will always have the latest passwords!  If you are on a new computer – just download KeePass again, then file > open > open URL.

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