Two decades
inside the web
as it kept rewriting
itself.
I’m Jason, a hosting industry insider with experience across open-source CMS platforms, control panels, cloud infrastructure, and the events that bring the industry together. Today, I focus on building partnerships, programming industry summits, and documenting what is happening across the hosting ecosystem.
- Jul 20, 2026
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Just Hacked the Creative Pipeline
Netflix is dropping half a billion dollars on an AI production house, signaling a massive shift in how the industry handles the bridge between raw code and cinema.
Read more→ - Jul 19, 2026
Forced Updates and the Gravity of Version 7.0.2
WordPress triggered the 'forced' update switch for version 7.0.2, and in the hosting world, that means it's time to watch the logs and stay alert.
Read more→ - Jul 19, 2026
WordPress Core Flaws and the Reality of ‘Set It and Forget It’
A new unauthenticated RCE in WordPress core reminds us that even when you do everything right, the codebase remains a moving target for global botnets.
Read more→
The early 2000s were the good years for tinkerers. Open-source CMS platforms were the closest thing we had to a universal starter kit, and PHP-Nuke and osCommerce were how you learned to ship real projects on the open web. I went deep on Joomla for the better part of a decade, contributing code to the project, organizing its community around releases and events, and eventually crossing over into the WordPress orbit that quietly swallowed everything in its path.
From there the story is a tour of the hosting stack: cPanel and the control-panel era that defined shared hosting, the managed cloud wave at Cloudways and DigitalOcean, and the publishing side at webhosting.today. Day to day now I'm at JetBackup, working on backup and disaster recovery and helping hosts protect the infrastructure that keeps everything running. I also program the seasonal industry summits, Atlas Digital Summit and Domain Days Dubai, where the hosting community gathers to set the agenda for what comes next.
The through-line is community, the conferences, the hallway conversations, and the group chats where the industry actually decides what happens next. The technology changes; the people pointing it in the right direction stay the same.
Twenty-something years,
in reverse.
- 2026 – present
FounderAtlas Digital SummitPrivate gatherings for hosting leaders, AI infrastructure innovators, and the builders of the agentic web.
- 2026 – presentFounderConf64
The Conference Operating System for Business Development and Field Marketing Teams.
- 2026 – present
Co-FounderSuperDeployThe advanced migration engine for AI applications. Seamlessly transition your codebase to independent, production-grade infrastructure in minutes.
- 2025 – 2026Director of Business Developmentwebhosting.today
Contract · Business development and partnerships for the hosting publisher.
- 2024 – presentBusiness Development & Partnerships ManagerJetBackup
Backup and disaster recovery for the hosting ecosystem.
- 2023 – present
Chief Marketing Officer, Founding TeamDomain Days DubaiMENA’s domain and digital asset conference.
- 2021 – 2023Senior Manager, WordPress Business Unit → Lead Community Marketing Manager IICloudways / DigitalOcean
Full-time · WordPress community, field marketing, and sales enablement through the acquisition.
- 2019 – 2021Marketing ManagercPanel
Full-time · Event planner and marketing strategist for 500–3,000 attendee events and virtual series.
- 2017 – 2019FounderCMS Summit
The global CMS conference.
- 2007 – 2019CEO | FounderJoomlaxtc.com / Monev Software LLC
Premium Joomla templates and extensions. 101,000+ members.
- 2015 – 2019Board Member, Capital Team ChairJoomla! Project
Leadership, sponsorships, and partnerships for the open-source CMS.
- 2001 – 2005DeveloperPHP-Nuke · osCommerce era
First shipping code in the early open-source web.
Weekly Threat Intel: Critical WP Core Exploits and Bulletproof Hosting Takedowns
Critical WordPress Core Vulnerabilities
- wp2shell Attack Chain: WordPress released versions 7.0.2 and 6.9.5 to patch critical core flaws (CVE-2026-60137 and CVE-2026-63030) [2, 6].
- Active Exploitation: A public exploit has been released for these vulnerabilities, which involve SQL injection and API misconfigurations, putting millions of sites at risk [5, 6].
WordPress Ecosystem Risk Assessment
- High Volume of Vulnerabilities: Between July 10 and July 18, reports identified over 178 security issues, including 8 critical and up to 42 high-severity flaws [1, 4].
- Patch Gap: A staggering 102 out of 103 issues identified in one weekly report remain unpatched, necessitating immediate manual audits [1].
- Active Web Shell Attacks: CISA/Government alerts highlight 17 specific plugin vulnerabilities currently being exploited in the wild to plant web shells [3].
Infrastructure and Hosting Threats
- Bulletproof Hosting Takedowns: U.S. and Dutch authorities have charged/arrested operators of web hosting companies used by Russian cybercrime networks [7, 9].
- Financial Impact: These hosting networks facilitated ransomware attacks resulting in over $62 million in losses by providing "bulletproof" infrastructure for criminal activity [8, 9].
Recommended Actions
- Update Core: Immediately update all WordPress installations to version 7.0.2 or 6.9.5 to mitigate the wp2shell exploit chain [2, 5].
- Plugin Audit: Cross-reference active plugins against the gov-issued list of 17 CVEs currently used for web shell deployment [3].
- Infrastructure Review: Infrastructure teams should monitor for traffic associated with sanctioned Russian hosting providers recently targeted by international law enforcement [7, 9].
On the
road.
Conferences, summits, and WordCamps I’ll be at in the months ahead.
- Aug 16 – 19, 2026
- Sep 28 – 29, 2026
- Domain Days DubaiRescheduled
New dates to be announced.
Oct 15 – 16, 2026 - Nov 11 – 12, 2026
- State of the WordDec 2026
- Mar 15 – 18, 2027
When the servers
go quiet.
A small digital label putting out industrial house, progressive house, and dubstep. A different kind of open protocol.
Twenty years of showing up for the projects, communities, and voices that keep the open web open.
A news portal covering the hosting and domain industry — and a running excuse to keep talking to the people who build it.