Daniel’s Hosting (DH), the largest dark web hosting provider, was forced to shut down after suffering another hacking attack within six months from the first incident. It is reported that about 7,600 darknet websites have been forced offline after the incident that saw the deletion of an entire database.
According to the founder of DH service Daniel Winzen, the attack came in early March when an attacker wiped out all relevant services that enable DH to serve its customers. He intimated that the attack was discovered on the morning following the actual attack when the hosting service has lost most of its important data.
Winzen intimated that he lacks specific information surrounding the attack especially the manner in which the attack was executed and the hackers that were involved.
Importantly, according to the founder, the DH backend database account was deleted by the attacker who went ahead to create a new one. However, the user accounts hosted by the DH hosting platform were untouched. Otherwise, Winzen advised users to consider their passwords to be compromised and therefore change them.
Site to Remain Down
For now, DH Hosting has resolved to stay shut as they do not intend to proceed with providing the hosting services. However, Winzen has laid plans for a second launching of the platform, which would offer better services and guarantee a more robust security system.
While speaking to ZDNet, Winzen commented on the complicated nature of running the service considering that he has another full-time job. Sparing time to monitor the server and clear all incoming illicit and unscrupulous websites is a huge undertaking.
To help any users looking to host dark web portals for free, Winzen recommended that they can consider alternatives hosting providers like Freedom Hosting Reloaded.
An Earlier Incident
This dark web hosting had suffered an earlier hacking attack in November 2018, an incident where a hacker targeted the DH backend database server to wipe out more than 6,500 websites.
Interestingly, DH’s popularity was credited to a hacking attack that affected a competing dark web hosting service – Freedom Hosting II.
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