Daniel’s Hosting Closes After Second Major Hack

According to a report by ZDNet, one of the largest darknet hosting providers, Daniel’s Hosting (DH), was hacked on the night of March 10, 2020. Unknown attackers gained access to DH’s backend, deleted all hosting-related databases, and removed the owner’s account.

DH developer Daniel Winzen shared in his blog that he only discovered the breach in the morning, by which time it was too late to save anything. Notably, the hosting service intentionally did not keep backups. Winzen told reporters that he still needs to determine how the hacker accessed the backend. He added that he is currently focused on other projects and daily life, and since DH was more of a hobby, he does not plan to spend much time investigating the incident.

User Accounts and Data Security

The creator of Daniel’s Hosting emphasized that the hack did not affect user accounts hosting their resources on DH. However, he still recommends treating the incident as a data breach and advises former clients to change their passwords, especially if they use the same credentials on other platforms.

No Plans to Resume Service

According to Winzen, DH is unlikely to resume operations in the foreseeable future. He stated, “I work on this project in my free time alongside my main job, and I spend a lot of time keeping the server clean from illegal and fraudulent sites. I spend ten times more time deleting accounts than I could devote to further development. At this stage, I do not plan to continue this hosting project.”

Winzen did mention that he would like to relaunch the service with new features and improvements in the future, so he wouldn’t have to spend all his free time on administration. However, this is unlikely to happen in the coming months.

Alternatives for Darknet Hosting

Winzen noted that users looking for free darknet hosting can turn to other providers such as Freedom Hosting Reloaded, Ablative Hosting, OneHost, or IBHost.

History of Security Breaches

This is the second major hack of DH in the past 18 months. At the end of 2018, the hosting provider suffered a similar attack, where unknown hackers gained access to the database and simply deleted all accounts, including the server’s root account. At that time, more than 6,500 sites went offline, as there were no backups then either.