.htaccess mods

I just had a problem with my office being blocked from our own website. We finally checked out the .htaccess (we were getting 403 errors and found a new block of text that looks like this:

#BEGIN HOST BLOCK
# The following configuration has been set by your hosting provider,
# and has been put in place for the benefit of the server.
#
# Any modification or removal by non-authorized individuals may
# result in corrective action.
#
# If you have any questions you may contact your provider for information.
order deny,allow

allow from 192.x.x.x
allow from 173.x.x.x
deny from all
#END HOST BLOCK

I blacked out the IPs and were many more that I am showing. When I removed that block, I was OK which makes sense because our IP was not in the list.

Could iThemes Security have done this? Is there a feature I can turn off taht will stop it from doing this?

Thanks