Update: Many thanks to Dan Halloran of ICANN for clearing up this issue with bloggers spreading this inaccurate story. (See comments.) I've corrected my post below. In short, this is a pro-owner rule encouraging registrar portability. I still have questions about registrar slamming, but ICANN's announcement claims the usual authorization methods are still required to complete a transfer.

New ICANN rules state that owners of domain names do not have to explicitly authorize the transfer of ownership registrar of their domains. When an ownership a registrar transfer request is received, the owner is contacted by e-mail, and has five days to say, "Hey wait a minute, I didn't approve a transfer! Gimme that back!" If they don't respond, the transfer goes through.

This means domain hijacking (theft) will be easier, as easy as simply requesting a transfer of ownership of someone else's domain. Some registrars offer domain "locking," which, by your request, causes ownership registrar transfer requests to be automatically denied. If you own a domain name, contact your registrar immediately, and see if locking is an option. Though locking appears to be a relatively new feature, I'm surprised to learn that not everyone offers it. Most notably, Register supposedly doesn't. Dot-com-era hero Joker.com has easy self-service locking, and remains my registrar of choice.

While you're at your registrar's website scrambling to figure out how to prevent your online brand and identity from becoming a pr0n site domain name from switching registrars without your permission, make sure your contact information is accurate and up to date, and the e-mail address you use for domain registration will accept mail sent by your registrar (and not spam-filter it).