Hunter Storm | Hosting Security Failure Remediation

I Was the Firewall | How a Former CISO Uncovered Systemic Hosting Failures and What You Need to Know to Protect Your Web Hosting Environment

Ever wonder if your web hosting is operating as designed? Are your metrics lagging and is your site rank dropping? It might not be your product or your website. Instead, it might be your hosting provider or your hosting configuration. Learn from this former Chief Information Security Officer’s (CISO) experience with web hosting issues. This post identifies systemic failures and provides actionable steps to remediate them. Hosting security failure remediation is not impossible.

Learn more about website metrics in out article, Celebrating Your Support | How Hunter Storm’s Website Metrics Are Rocking the Stage.

Overview | What You’ll Get from This Article

This in-depth article is designed to help readers:

Learn from a real-life, forensic-level breakdown conducted by a former CISO
Understand how systemic failures in shared hosting environments can impact site functionality and user access
Recognize signs of unauthorized changes, misconfigurations, or internal sabotage
Access a self-audit checklist to verify their own site’s health
Know what to do when support systems fail, and how to document issues properly

I Was the Firewall

I’m Hunter Storm. In 2002, I was the first Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at one of the world’s largest hosting companies. Over the years, I’ve worked with enterprise, government, and private-sector security teams. My job has always been to identify problems before they become breaches, to secure systems from within.

I had used that same hosting company since 2010 for various hobby projects. In 2018, I was able to obtain my name domain, Hunter Storm, Hosting was mostly solid, except in 2022. That’s when the company migrated my domain to new servers. The migration “failed,” and my site was left in a down condition. Due to work commitments at my Fortune 100 company role as an Associate Vice President (AVP) and internal Information Security Consultant, I did not have time to investigate and get the site back online.

In October 2023, I came back to this website and went through the process of getting it back online with that same hosting company. What I encountered shocked me. It wasn’t just poor support. It was a full breakdown of access, accountability, and technical hygiene. My background gave me a unique advantage: I saw everything they tried to hide.

This is the story of what I uncovered, how I documented and remediated it, and what you can do to protect your own site.

What Happened | Hosting Security Failure Remediation Efforts

Over a 16-month period, I logged:

A complete and sustained denial of access to cPanel
Unauthorized changes to .htaccess, robots.txt, and server configuration files
False malware flags used to justify breaking image paths or deleting files
Firewall rules toggled without notice or explanation
Unauthorized blocks and redirects implemented at the web application firewall (WFA) (e.g., 403 forbidden, 404. and 307 for pages that should be 200)
Email and file manager access removed
DNS misconfigurations that led to duplicate domains, redirect loops, and deindexing

Worse, every escalation attempt, from support tickets to direct contact with the Office of the CEO, was met with delays, dismissals, or deflection.

What Made This Worse Than Just Bad Support?

I had proof: logs, screenshots, file hashes, timestamped firewall records.
I knew their systems. I helped build them.
I offered to help. I proposed a hosting security failure remediation plan and professional consulting

They didn’t just ignore me; they quietly blocked me further. So, I did what any good security professional does: test, remediate, and document. Where remediation was not possible due to lack of access, such as hosting provider firewall ACLs (Access Control Lists), I continued creating trouble tickets and escalating.

Why Didn’t I Name the Hosting Company in This Article?

There are three reasons I chose not to name the hosting company in this article. Because:

The issues I experienced with my website hosting could happen anywhere. They only difference may be in how quickly issues are discovered and remediated. So, the process I used to find and handle the issues is more important than the name of the place where they happened.
I used to work there, so I feel a professional and ethical obligation to keep the name private.
My hope is that the article may bring light to the situation and create the right kind of change. This is a phenomenal company, and it was run by a fantastic team. Previously, they would’ve discovered and fixed the issues I found before I could even blink. This company has the potential to become that again. I firmly believe in and support course corrections.
Hosting security failure remediation is still possible, if senior leadership begins to make efforts to clean house.

How to Check for Hosting Issues Yourself

Use this quick audit checklist:

Duplicate listings or deindexed pages in search engines?
.htaccess or robots.txt changed unexpectedly?
Image directories (e.g., /images/) not loading?
Intermittent 403 or 504 errors?
Lost access to CPanel, File Manager, or Email?
Redirects or SSL errors you didn’t configure?
Unknown IPs or unexpected firewall rules?

If you answered yes to any of these, it’s time to investigate further.

What to Do If You Find These Issues

Document Everything: Screenshots, logs, file timestamps
Escalate Professionally: Include evidence in your support tickets
Audit .htaccess and Robots.txt: Restore from backup if tampered
Check DNS Records: Use a DNS propagation checker
Confirm Site Ownership: Use WHOIS to back your claim
Refuse Gaslighting: Demand technical answers, not deflection
Review Firewall Logs: Look for rule changes or unexpected IP activity
Bring in Outside Help: Trusted third parties or consultants can validate findings

Why This Matters for Everyone

If this can happen to a former CISO, it can happen to anyone.

Most customers won’t notice misconfigurations until it’s too late. Many won’t know how to retrieve logs or interpret firewall behavior. This isn’t about being technical. It’s about being empowered to protect your work.

Glossary of Terms

.htaccess: Server config file used to manage redirects and access rules

403 Forbidden: HTTP error indicating access is denied

CPanel: Web-based control panel for managing website and hosting settings

DNS: Domain Name System, maps domain names to IP addresses

Firewall Bypass Prevention: Blocks requests that try to bypass the firewall

Malware Flag: Indicator raised by security tools when content appears suspicious

Robots.txt: File used to guide how search engines crawl your site

Shared Hosting: Multiple customers share one server’s resources

Slug: The readable part of a URL (e.g., /my-page)

WAF: Web Application Firewall, filters and protects website traffic

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Final Thoughts

I didn’t want to write this. Instead, I wanted to quietly fix the problem, secure the system, write a formal thank-you email, and move on. To be clear, there were a few people at that company who did a phenomenal job. However, their access was limited, and they weren’t able to remediate certain technical issues with hosting and security.

Support Tickets and Denial of Service

But after over 20 support tickets, loss of access, repeated website outages due to unauthorized changes and automated system issues, along with a wall of silence from support, I knew this was not going to be an easy resolution. So, I realized the story itself had value to the tech industry, SEO professionals, web developers, security professionals, middle management, and senior leadership.

These are the kinds of technical issues we need to be aware of, monitor for, and remediate. Whether they are due to accidental misconfiguration, training gaps, automation integration problems, or sabotage, they need to be reviewed and corrected. Most importantly, they need to be acknowledged, not just swept under the rug. Transparency and open communication are how even the most difficult challenges are resolved. The intersection between these things is where alliances, partnerships, and trust are built.

Do You Have an Issue with Your Web Hosting?

Have you had issues with your own hosting? Noticed a drop in site metrics and global rank? Did you wonder why? You had already done everything you could to ensure content quality, technical SEO, and site stability? You’re not wrong. You’re not alone. And your instincts are probably right: you may have an issue with your hosting.

Don’t despair! Instead, use this article to guide you to a possible solution.

“I wasn’t the vulnerability. I was the patch.” – Hunter Storm

Doing It Right Award | Recognition for the Unsung Heroes

Hunter Storm offers recognition for those who get the job done right. Check out this page dedicated to those unsung heroes and their incredible work, immortalized with the Hunter Storm unofficial Doing It Right Award.