The Problem
Circular Materials arrived in a crisis. A newly launched website built by a third-party developer had been deployed onto hosting I manage—and it was under attack. The site had been compromised, and malicious bot traffic was overwhelming the infrastructure.
The situation was deteriorating rapidly:
- The website had been successfully hacked, creating security vulnerabilities
- Server was being hammered with 17,000 bot hits per day
- Website performance had degraded to near-unusable levels
- Critical features were failing or performing erratically
- Support requests were escalating as users experienced issues
- The compromised site posed ongoing security risks to both the business and its users
The Approach
This was a rescue mission requiring immediate action on multiple fronts. I had to close the security breach, stop the bot attack and restore normal operations at the same time—and with as little downtime for the business as possible.
Comprehensive Security Audit
Conducted thorough analysis of the website software to identify all vulnerabilities and entry points that had been exploited in the hack.
Hardening & Remediation
Systematically strengthened security across the application, closing vulnerabilities and removing malicious code introduced during the breach.
Infrastructure Protection
Implemented CloudFlare premium services as a protective layer, filtering malicious traffic before it reached the origin server.
The Solution
I put in a multi-layered security and performance solution that addressed both the immediate threats and long-term stability. The focus was on stopping the attack, securing the application, and making sure it wouldn't happen again.
Comprehensive Security Audit
Conducted deep analysis of the codebase and server configuration to identify all vulnerabilities, backdoors, and weaknesses that allowed the initial breach.
Vulnerability Remediation
Systematically patched security holes, removed malicious code, updated vulnerable dependencies, and hardened the application against future attacks.
CloudFlare Premium Implementation
Deployed CloudFlare's enterprise-grade security services to create a protective barrier, filtering malicious traffic and bot attacks before they reach the origin server.
Bot Mitigation & Traffic Filtering
Configured intelligent bot detection and filtering rules to block the 17,000+ daily malicious requests while allowing legitimate traffic through.
Performance Optimization
Leveraged CloudFlare's CDN and caching capabilities to dramatically improve page load times and reduce server load, even under legitimate high traffic.
Ongoing Monitoring & Protection
Established continuous security monitoring to detect and respond to threats in real-time, providing long-term peace of mind.
The Results
The security intervention was successful. Server traffic stabilized immediately after implementing the CloudFlare protection layer, dropping the malicious bot traffic from 17,000 hits per day to negligible levels.
Core features returned to working order—including interaction with the site's large tabular datasets, which had become unusable under load. The most damaging failure was quieter than the bot traffic: staff were frequently unable to log in because the server timed out, and work was being lost at save points. Both were resolved once the malicious load stopped reaching the origin.
The client now has a secure, stable platform protected by enterprise-grade security infrastructure that can detect and mitigate threats before they impact operations.