Recently while enjoying my time on YouTube, I was confronted with an unwanted Godaddy ad that went, “You might not know what SSL is. But hackers do.” Then, they even claimed to provide the strongest encryption.

Much time hadn’t passed since the recent news of their hack blew up, and it’s pretty ironic how it was regarding their SSL private keys getting stolen. Ouch!

So What Really Happened?

Just three days back, users reported getting an email from GoDaddy that they had fallen prey to a MASSIVE security breach affecting over 1.2 million+ WordPress websites. Businesses and individuals didn’t take this notice less than the death news of their loved ones, as it was nothing less than a demise of their online careers.

GoDaddy released the following press release and tried to calm down the furious users with their “ongoing investigation.” Too late honey!

Source: GoDaddy

Allegedly an unauthorized third party gained access to the customer id, associated emails, their initial WordPress Admin login details, and SFTP database usernames and passwords (which is pretty much all that a Hosting provider pledges to protect). 

This data leakage translates to the horrifying fact that an unauthorized party may be accessing your WordPress service and altering the published content. To top it all, your login details being exposed may mean EVEN BIGGER LOSSES.

Maybe we are going a bit too hard on them? But are we? I mean, three breaches in two years speak volumes about their services. 

How is their giant hosting service the only one that always falls vulnerable to security breaches? Only if GoDaddy prioritized their customer’s data and understood its importance would they have dealt with these issues better.

How Are GoDaddy Users Mourning Their Losses?

While GoDaddy is trying to cool their customers down, I guess the users aren’t falling for the false hopes this time. They are still in the trauma of losing their customer’s trust and their personal information.

“Trust is like a mirror, you can fix it if it’s broken, but you can still see the crack in that ******* ****** reflection.” – Lady Gaga (take notes GoDaddy)

When I took a personal look at the first-hand sufferers, I got SHOOK-ETH by the scary claims and conspiracies made by the users (they sounded true though).

Among many users narrating their sad stories, one stood up as they warned everyone not to search for new domain names on GoDaddy. When a user searches for a domain, and if it’s cheap, their bot buys it and later resells it for more. That’s cheap GoDaddy, if true.

Many users were also seen clueless, looking for better alternatives. While I can’t say for everyone, in my experience, managed cloud hosting has always been my salvation.

These days, the top providers are also serving major discounts following the Black Friday deals, so I mean, now’s the perfect time to switch to a better option and ditch GoDaddy once and for all. Although if anyone is still using their services, then they surely don’t care about their data.

Still….Why Is GoDaddy so Popular???

One thing is beyond my human mind; a hosting service with the time and budget to promote its ads on giant events doesn’t have the adequate resources to strengthen its security?

Maybe GoDaddy is relying on a monopoly to survive. With them booking the costly time slots during Super Bowl and ensuring their presence on all advertisement channels, they have made the general public believe they are the only hosting provider. Looks like this third wave in the past 2 years is strong enough to wipe out their dirty tactics.

Another reason for their fame could be their cheap rates as a domain provider, which separates them from their competitors, attracting users with affordable rates to opt for their services.

Bye Bye GoDaddy

As the stream of affected users is already moving on to better alternatives, those who haven’t are digging their own graves. It’s time to bid farewell to the infamous domain & hosting provider and welcome a managed hosting provider that prioritizes its security more than making cringe advertisements. What’s your opinion on GoDaddy’s best alternatives; enlighten others in the comments below.

With all the brutal responses emerging from the community, I feel GoDaddy is a fine option for individuals whose primary concern is not security. However, mid to large-sized businesses should not fathom choosing them, given the recent scary incidents.

What’s your opinion on GoDaddy’s best alternatives; enlighten others in the comments below.

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