I work with a lot of web hosts in my day to day duties but over the past couple of days I’ve been totally blown away by something I’ve experienced first hand with a popular web host.
So I’m just bringing this to light in hopes you’ll never have to experience this “end of your business online.”
How would you feel, if, by no real fault of your own, your web host sent you an email early Saturday morning after suspending your website without warning that reads like:
“If your website is hacked your website will be terminated and backup of data will not be provided.”
Well, that is occurring today at a popular web host I will would prefer to leave unnamed.
Below is the letter web hosting clients are sent when their websites are hacked:
++++
Hello,
Your hosting account has been exploited/hacked. The hack has compromised all of your files and your account must be reset completely. Only an account reset will clear out any potentially harmful things like viruses or malware that may have been uploaded.
If you have a full backup made with the Backup Wizard from cPanel, you can upload this file to your account after it has been reset. Let us know the name of the file and where we can find it. We will restore the backup for you.
If you have a partial backup or a backup file made some other way, you will need to restore the backup yourself.
Unfortunately, you will lose ALL data including website files, email addresses and databases. As this is a destructive process, we need you to provide us with some information before we proceed.
1. Please provide the appropriate security verification information:
————————————————————————————————
The last four digits of the number on the front of the credit card we have on file for you:
————————————————————————————————
If there is no credit card on file, please provide your full billing address including your zip/postal code:
————————————————————————————————
2. Please put YES next to each of the following to indicate you understand what will happen with your account:
————————————————————————————————
I understand all website files will be deleted:
————————————————————————————————
I understand all email messages and addresses will be deleted:
————————————————————————————————
I understand all addon domains/subdomains will be deleted:
————————————————————————————————
I understand all databases will be deleted:
————————————————————————————————
Once we have your reply, we will proceed with resetting your account.
—
Technical Support Representative
++++
This is no early April fools joke. This is real.
Are you as amazed as I am?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If there is enough interest I'll post a link to the original article with hint to who this host is respectively
So I’m just bringing this to light in hopes you’ll never have to experience this “end of your business online.”
How would you feel, if, by no real fault of your own, your web host sent you an email early Saturday morning after suspending your website without warning that reads like:
“If your website is hacked your website will be terminated and backup of data will not be provided.”
Well, that is occurring today at a popular web host I will would prefer to leave unnamed.
Below is the letter web hosting clients are sent when their websites are hacked:
++++
Hello,
Your hosting account has been exploited/hacked. The hack has compromised all of your files and your account must be reset completely. Only an account reset will clear out any potentially harmful things like viruses or malware that may have been uploaded.
If you have a full backup made with the Backup Wizard from cPanel, you can upload this file to your account after it has been reset. Let us know the name of the file and where we can find it. We will restore the backup for you.
If you have a partial backup or a backup file made some other way, you will need to restore the backup yourself.
Unfortunately, you will lose ALL data including website files, email addresses and databases. As this is a destructive process, we need you to provide us with some information before we proceed.
1. Please provide the appropriate security verification information:
————————————————————————————————
The last four digits of the number on the front of the credit card we have on file for you:
————————————————————————————————
If there is no credit card on file, please provide your full billing address including your zip/postal code:
————————————————————————————————
2. Please put YES next to each of the following to indicate you understand what will happen with your account:
————————————————————————————————
I understand all website files will be deleted:
————————————————————————————————
I understand all email messages and addresses will be deleted:
————————————————————————————————
I understand all addon domains/subdomains will be deleted:
————————————————————————————————
I understand all databases will be deleted:
————————————————————————————————
Once we have your reply, we will proceed with resetting your account.
—
Technical Support Representative
++++
This is no early April fools joke. This is real.
Are you as amazed as I am?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If there is enough interest I'll post a link to the original article with hint to who this host is respectively
