A 32-year-old software developer, who started a company called Lxlabs at home in Bangalore, is dead of an apparent suicide after hackers exploited a critical vulnerability in the VPS management software he wrote and wiped out the data on a reported 100,000 web sites hosted by the British firm VAserv Sunday night.

KT Ligesh, who created the Xen/OpenVZ-based hyperVM package and the integrated Kloxo (née Lxadmin) web hosting platform that VAserv depended on, was found hanged from the ceiling of his bedroom by his roommate Monday morning after a late night of heavy drinking, according to the Times of India.

His mother and sister killed themselves the same way five years ago, the paper said, and Ligesh, whose shoulder tattoo read "God is a F****** Idiot," was reportedly brooding Sunday about their deaths and the loss of a contract. The hack may have pushed him over the edge.

LxLabs' web site claims that hyperVM managed more than 30,000 Windows-based virtual private servers and that 8,000 servers were running Kloxo. It says the largest single installation of hyperVM centrally managed more than 4,000 VPSes.

It touts the software as the most advanced and flexible hosting platform on planet Earth but security researchers at Milw0rm just warned that Kloxo is riddled with 24 glaring vulnerabilities.

VAserv believes a deliberate SQL injection attack on its servers penetrated its central management software and wiped out the vital binaries destroying about half the user data stored on its system all at once, according to The Register.

The company said it was attacked by a zero-day exploit in hyperVM version 2.0.7992 and that it's heard from other firms that have also been hit.

VAserv specializes in low-cost web hosting and runs CheapVPS and FSCKVPS. It has been struggling to restore its vandalized servers, but has given up hope of recovering all of the lost data.

About half the customers affected had no backup since they opted for VAserv's unmanaged service. The company's site lists two dozen servers as having "total data loss."

Its nodes in the US are also affected.

It is offering two-month of free hosting to customers that lost data and require a new VPS.

• A Sad Day for Cloud Computing & Multi-Virtualization