The Dark Web is shrouded in anonymity, but now we know that a single man acts as the hosting service for more than 6,500 Dark Web sites.
We found out last week about Daniel Winzen when his company, Daniel's Hosting, was hacked and sites were taken down.
And as ZDNet reports, the sites are not just down—they are also out.
Winzen said the server's root account was also deleted, and that all 6,500+ Dark Web services hosted on the platform are now gone.
"Unfortunately, all data is lost and per design, there are no backups," Winzen told ZDNet in an email. "I will bring my hosting back up once the vulnerability has been identified and fixed."
There have been a number of past Dark Web hacks taking down sites, often in a competitive battle. So who would want to disrupt Daniel's hosting of dark websites?
We like what Security Affairs has to say on this topic:
It is very hard to attribute the attack... cybercrime syndicates, nation-state hackers, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies are all possible suspects with valid motivations.
