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Chapter 9: Domain Names, DNS and Subdomains

9.5 Buying a domain on GoDaddy

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Friends, the real danger when buying a domain is the add-ons. For EC2 you only need the domain – no hosting, email or SSL plans.

The GoDaddy website changes its look from time to time, so the button names below may vary slightly. The flow stays the same.

  1. Go to godaddy.com and sign in (or create an account and verify your email/mobile).
  2. Search for the name you want, e.g. yourname-cloud. Compare TLDs such as .com, .in, .dev and .online.
  3. Add the domain to the cart. Carefully review the add-ons: email plans, website builders, SSL certificates and hosting are not needed for EC2 hosting (we'll use free Let's Encrypt certificates). Remove what you don't need.
  4. Check the registration period and the renewal price, which is often higher than the first-term offer. Enable domain privacy if offered, to hide your personal contact details from public WHOIS.
  5. Pay and complete the purchase. GoDaddy may send an email to verify the registrant contact. Click it, or the domain can be suspended.
  6. Open My Products (or Domain Portfolio). Your new domain is listed there with its default GoDaddy name servers.

Practising without spending?

You can learn most of this chapter with the hosts file trick from section 8.7. For real practice, cheap TLDs (such as .online, .site or .xyz) are often available at low first-term prices. Just turn off auto-renew if you don't want to keep them.

Ravindra Bagale's Tip

Always check the renewal price before paying – the first-term offer is cheap, but the price can go up at renewal. And after the purchase, click the verification link sent to the registrant email right away, or the domain can be suspended.

Lab

Chala, GoDaddy var the Amul-style dairy sathi teen naav shodha (.in, .com, .online) aani pratyekachi pahilya term chi aani renewal price table madhe liha. Kharedi karaychi garaj nahi – fakt tulna kara aani kontya add-ons la nahi mhanal te liha.

Extended teaching notes

Why this lesson matters

Cloud security is mostly IAM, network exposure, logging and secure defaults. The shared responsibility model means the provider patches the metal; you patch what you configure.

  • No public databases or public admin panels.
  • Roles / OIDC instead of long-lived access keys.
  • CloudTrail / Activity Logs / Audit Logs on and retained.
  • S3/Blob/GCS: Block Public Access; encrypt; least privilege.

Mini case study

Suppose we are on a purple-team exercise for an Indian mid-size company (sample data). Red notes a technique from this lesson against a lab clone. Blue must show the control that stops it, the log that would have fired, and the ticket that hardens production. That is the standard this course trains you for.

Defender's worksheet (do this today)

  1. Write the lesson title, date and the exact lab target you are allowed to use.
  2. List three owned systems (VMs, apps, or cloud accounts) where this lesson applies.
  3. Run one safe check from the lesson on a lab system only. Paste the command and output.
  4. Write a two-sentence fix you would give a teammate.
  5. Name one related public advisory (CERT-In, CISA, NVD, or a vendor bulletin) with its date.

Indian workplace (sample data)

Suppose we are a junior analyst at Infosys, TCS, Wipro or a fintech SOC in Bengaluru/Pune. Turn this lesson into one checklist item with an owner, a due date and a place to store evidence (ticket + screenshot).

Global practice

Compare your notes with OWASP, CIS Benchmarks, NIST CSF/IR guidance or a cloud Well-Architected security question. Write five lines on what overlaps.

Everyday analogy

Explain the risk and the fix to a family member without jargon. If they can repeat the warning, you understand it well enough to teach juniors.

Key terms

  • Control: a safeguard (patch, config, process, detection).
  • Finding: a weakness backed by evidence.
  • Remediation: the fix plus how you verified it.
  • Scope: systems you have written permission to touch.
  • Least privilege: only the access the task needs.
  • Defence in depth: several layers so one failure does not end the story.

Common mistakes

  • Skipping written permission "just for a quick scan".
  • Practising on hostel, office or public targets without authorisation.
  • Collecting tool output without writing the fix.
  • Copying attack steps onto production to "verify". Defenders verify with versions, configs and patches.
  • Publishing screenshots that contain secrets, cookies or internal hostnames.

Recap

  • Evidence, fix, owner, date.
  • Own lab only.
  • Fix > spectacle.