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HostGator.com LLC
Company typePrivate company
IndustryWeb Hosting
Founded2002
FounderBrent Oxley
HeadquartersHouston, Texas, USA
ProductsWeb Services
Revenue$34.2 million (2008)[1]
Websitehostgator.com

HostGator is a Houston-based web hosting company with an additional presence in Austin, Texas.[2] It was founded in 2002 by Brent Oxley, who was then a student at Florida Atlantic University.[3] By 2006, HostGator had passed the 200,000 mark in registered domains.[4] In 2008, Inc. Magazine ranked HostGator at #21 in the United States and #1 in the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas area in its list of fastest-growing companies.[5] The same year, HostGator decided to make their hosting service green hosting by working with Integrated Ecosystem Market Services.[6]

In 2011, HostGator has started its operations in India as Hostgator.in by setting up a support office and data center in India. The Head Office of HostGator in India is located at Nashik, Maharashtra.

As of 2012, HostGator hosts over 8 million domains.

Incidents

2012 social engineering attack

Further information: UGNazi § WHMCS_leak

In May 2012, the computer hacker group UGNazi claimed responsibility for hacking the web server of the web host billing software developer WHMCS in an apparent social engineering attack involving HostGator.[7] A member of the group Cosmo called WHMCS's hosting provider impersonating a senior employee.[8] They were subsequently granted root access to WHMCS's web server after providing information for identity verification. UGNazi later leaked publicly WHMCS's SQL database containing user information and 500,000 customer credit cards,[8] website files, and cPanel configuration.[9][10] After this issue WHMCS emailed members to change there passwords. They have also updated security since the May attack.

References

  1. ^ "HostGator -- Business Services, inc5000 Article - Inc. Articles". Inc. Magazine. 2008. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
  2. ^ Harrell, Barry (May 25, 2010). "HostGator expanding to Austin, bringing 300 jobs". Austin-American Statesman. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
  3. ^ "Management Team--HostGator.com". HostGator.com. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
  4. ^ "Web Host Host Gator at 200,000 Names". 2006.
  5. ^ "HostGator -- Business Services, inc5000 Article - Inc. Articles". Inc. Magazine. 2008. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
  6. ^ "Host Gator Paints Itself Green". TheWhir.com. 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
  7. ^ http://news.softpedia.com/news/UGNazi-Leaks-1-7-GB-of-Data-from-WHMCS-Servers-270914.shtml
  8. ^ a b http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/05/22/hackers-impersonate-web-billing-firms-staff-to-spill-500000-users-passwords-and-credit-cards/
  9. ^ http://paste.re/409.html
  10. ^ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/22/whmcs_breach/
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