The $15 didn't get me anywhere though...and no, the hacker didn't hack my computer nor do I have any keyloggers on my machine. My PC is protected by two or three firewalls. Now, there are two options: either my coder did it (AIM username ccbee2002), or someone hacked our AIM conversation and got my password I gave him. I left HostGator and now am at NetFirms, where they required me to pay for a year up in advance. Their support is so bad though I regret it now...I'm about to flip out on them on the phone because I asked them to dump a database through Shell which they won't do - they gave me wrong commands to use and emailing each other back and forth its taken a week now still no support I have actually received. I threatened to leave them..
You say "hundreds" of sites - dude you should be happy they will be back for only $15!!! Supposed that was not hundreds of blackhat spammer sites which wouldnt be even that much worth... Letter number letter - hm, cPanel uses this random passwds for Fantastico databases, but what about the main cPanel passwd??? Was it also this strong??? Another issue is the add-on sites creating FTP logins - didnt you maybee forget to delete one of these accoutn??? Anyways, good luck with restoring. So far my experience with HostGator goes, you'll be doing fine!
If you are posting your multisites hosting password via AIM then you should know its the most INSECURE way of doing this!!! (with email). Try sharing passwds via some secure SSH of SFTP login or mobile text message next time. NetFirms - another wrong hit. Try the http://surfspeedy.com, that looks way better.
NetFirms has a good control panel, but their support sucks ass and their servers are limited. A lot of my sites cannot have .htaccess files with modrewrite and I am furious at this, and support takes on average ONE WEEK to TWO WEEKS to respond. I can call them, but there is NO TOLL-FREE number to call for support and I cannot understand their support representatives because they're all like Indian!!! I pretty much got fucked over with NetFirms as they required a full year's payment for their business plan upfront, which I did, and cannot get a refund for. >_>
I don't suppose you've talked to him about it. Maybe his computer was hacked. Or, maybe he was mad at you and killed your site. Either way, you should have had a local backup of your site and database on your own computer.
First, firewalls do not guarentee that information can not be sent to and from your computer. Firewalls can easily be compromised and all it takes is a program or two to come with where a keylogger got in to stop all your firewall or antivirus programs. Keyloggers are installed with a program that seems unsuspecious, and then the keylogger runs in the background. The keylogger then, after a certain period of time passes by, will attempt to send the information to another computer. Second, there is a chance your coder did this, this is why you should always give them a different username and password for your account, and then delete it when you are done. Odds someone got to your history is virtually 0. If you decide that it is your hoster I know someone who may be able to get revenge for you, however I do not suggest this unless you know he is the one who caused your trouble. Third, if you are on shared hosting, there is a good chance someone breached into the server through another websites fault, meaning it was not your fault at all. Fourth, when you get your websites back up (if you get your websites back up), you may want to pay for a security hole checker to take a look at your website and see if anything could be used to a hacker advantage. I'm done lecturing now, hehe. Good Luck, ~Chris