Over the past week, the hosting world was turned upside down by PHP2Shell, a serious vulnerability in PHP. Here at Minty Hosting, we’ve also been closely monitoring the situation. It was an intense week during which we had to adapt constantly, implement new security updates, and make important decisions. Now that things are slowly returning to normal, I’d like to look back on how we handled this situation.
A conscious decision to stay online
When the severity of the vulnerability became clear, we, as a hosting provider, faced an important decision: should we temporarily take our servers offline, or keep our services available?
At Minty Hosting, we have made a conscious decision to keep our servers online.
That wasn't a decision we made lightly. We have a clear understanding of our infrastructure, manage our servers entirely in-house, and have the capabilities to closely monitor our systems and traffic.
Based on our technical analyses, we immediately implemented additional, temporary security measures to minimize the risk of abuse as much as possible.
This allowed us to keep our services available while we were working hard behind the scenes to secure and update our infrastructure.
For me, it was important to strike the right balance between security and continuity. Our customers rely on their websites and applications to remain accessible, but above all, they rely on them to run on a secure and reliable infrastructure.
An intense week behind the scenes
What followed was a week in which events unfolded at a rapid pace.
Throughout the week, we checked all the servers in our infrastructure one by one. In doing so, we reviewed the software versions installed, potential vulnerabilities, and the available security updates.
As soon as new patches became available, we reviewed them and implemented them immediately where necessary.
We continued this work over the past weekend as well. New security updates kept becoming available, so we rechecked and updated our systems several times.
So it wasn't just a matter of installing a single update and then sitting back and relaxing.
We have continuously monitored developments and adjusted our security measures as needed.
Monitoring played an important role
One of the reasons we were able to choose to keep our servers online was the ability to closely monitor our infrastructure.
Throughout the entire process, we closely monitored network traffic, server load, and any unusual activity, among other things.
This allowed us to respond quickly to new developments and take additional measures where necessary.
The necessary security updates have now been implemented, and our servers and the websites hosted on them are once again functioning as our customers have come to expect from us.
Of course, we will continue to monitor the situation.
Good server management doesn't start with a security incident
What I personally think is important to emphasize is that securing and maintaining our infrastructure isn't something we only do when a serious vulnerability is discovered.
At Minty Hosting, this is part of our daily work.
We follow a fixed maintenance and update schedule, under which our servers are routinely checked and updated with the latest available software and security updates.
In addition, we continuously monitor our infrastructure so that we can identify anomalies early on.
A situation like PHP2Shell naturally calls for extra attention, additional checks, and sometimes immediate action outside of regular maintenance.
But as far as I'm concerned, the basics always have to be in order.
After all, good hosting isn't just about speed and availability—it's mainly about what happens behind the scenes.
Proud of how we handled this
Looking back, I'm particularly pleased with the way we at Minty Hosting handled this situation.
We made deliberate choices, carefully reviewed our infrastructure, and actively worked to mitigate risks throughout the entire period.
At the same time, we were able to keep our services available.
Of course, this doesn't mean we can sit back and relax now. We will continue to monitor developments related to PHP2Shell and will continue to implement new security updates as needed.
To me, this situation reaffirms why we at Minty Hosting place such a high value on managing our own infrastructure.
As a result, we are not dependent on external parties for day-to-day server management and can respond quickly when the situation calls for it.
In conclusion
I understand that reports of serious security vulnerabilities may raise concerns among our customers.
That is precisely why I think it is important to be transparent about the choices we make and the measures we take.
Our responsibility doesn't end with simply providing hosting space. We want to ensure that our customers can rely on a stable, secure, and professionally managed hosting environment.
That's what we work on every day, even when there are no security incidents.
On behalf of Minty Hosting, I would like to thank our customers for their trust. We remain committed to providing secure, stable, and reliable hosting.
Job Dekker
Owner of Minty Hosting
