My Website Has Been Hacked – Help
This is perhaps every small-business owner’s nightmare. Your site has dropped significantly in SEO rankings and you discover that your site has been compromised.
While website security should be a top priority, most people simply don’t have the time or expertise to monitor these issues.
It’s been estimated that 30,000 websites are hacked around the world every single day. The number is probably higher since many people don’t report problems. In fact, some people don’t even realise that their site has been hacked!
If you believe your website has been hacked or your SEO ranking has plummeted in a short period, if you are getting error logs, have lost control of all your passwords, or think that spam emails are taking over your leads, it’s time to take action!
What Happens if My Website is Hacked?
Some people mistakenly believe that a hacked website is a bit like a practical joke. There is nothing funny about it and your compromised website can lead to severe consequences.
Security Breach
Data breaches are perhaps one of the biggest concerns. If your site stores any sensitive data about your customers, such as payment info, passwords, bank account information, and more, these can be used for identity fraud.
Customers may not trust your brand or website again if they feel their information has been compromised, and this can lead to a huge drop in sales.
Blacklisting by Search Engines
Hackers often use websites to send spam or phishing emails to your customers, which often leads to your business being blacklisted by search engines and email providers.
Exposure to Malware
Last, it is not uncommon for hackers to use your site for malicious code, using your website and those who look at it, into unknowing accomplices, spreading malware to others.
Damages and Fines
Customers might even file a case in court, leading to hefty fines and payouts for damages.
This isn’t fear-mongering, but fact.
The worst part is that, while it can all be easily avoided, it is often neglected or seen as an afterthought.
Who Should I Contact if My Website Has Been Hacked?
You should call your web hosting provider as soon as you realise your site has been hacked (even if you’re not 100 per cent sure).
Your web host can often help you identify when and where the breach happened, stop account access from outside sources, and prevent further damage to your site.
They can also check on their other customers on the same server to detect similar attacks. Many hosting providers offer emergency support for these issues.
The problem is that they tech-speak. Unless you are fairly knowledgeable about websites and website security, you may not understand what they are saying. Worse yet, you may not understand their instructions.
Another important task would be to inform your customers that a data breach has occurred and that they should immediately change their passwords and monitor bank accounts, credit cards, etc.
You should update your FTP login credentials, and change your passwords to your hacked site and other websites that might be linked to the hacked site.
Top 10 Signs Your Website Has Been Hacked
Some hackers are so good that it takes business owners months to discover the issue. The quicker you deal with hackers, the faster you can repair your website and minimise the damage.
The biggest and most obvious signs that your site has been hacked include:
- Very Slow Website Performance– This sudden spike in slow performance is often the first sign that your website security has been breached.
- Unplanned Website Downtime– While websites are sometimes taken offline for various reasons, these downtimes are planned for non-busy periods, such as nights or holidays. If your site goes offline without reason, you can almost guarantee that it’s been compromised.
- Search Engine Warnings– These are enough to frighten any business owner! If customers are seeing warning signs such as “This site may contain malicious code”, you know you’ve been seriously hacked!
- Unknown Pop-Ups or Advertising– Pop-up ads from sites you use are one thing, but if you see advertising or Pop-up ads for porn or other websites that look suspicious, your site has most likely been hacked.
- Unauthorised Admin Accounts– You should monitor your admin accounts weekly. If you see new user accounts with admin access, you should remove them ASAP as these are often used to access your website, modify existing pages, or write functions for spammy or suspicious content.
- Customer Complaints about Spam Email– Ugh. Nothing is more embarrassing than customers complaining about receiving spam emails from your website or phishing emails asking for passwords or other sensitive information. If customers tell you about these, you can bet your site has been compromised.
- Redirects– If links are leading your customers to other websites, especially porn or unrelated websites, your account has malware due to being hacked.
- Security Tool Alerts– If you use a spam detector, malware detector, or other website scanning tools that warn you about hacking attempts to your site, you should go over the entire site to ensure that they didn’t gain access.
- Unusual Log Changes– Any unusual server logs or changes in core files are clear indicators that your website has been compromised.
- Unauthorised Home Page Changes– If your home page suddenly has unusual fonts or graphics you didn’t authorise, or you notice strange blog pages or numerous failed login attempts, your site has probably been hacked.
If you notice any of the above on your website, it’s time to get serious about security issues. Hire security professionals you can count on, such as Website Helpers Perth.
What You Should Do Immediately if Your WordPress Site Gets Hacked!
Take a deep breath and stay calm. Panicking will get you nowhere. Take the following steps to minimise damage.
- Use Maintenance Mode – Using the dashboard, put your site in maintenance mode to prevent the hackers from progressing and exploiting your vulnerabilities.
- Do Password Change – Change every password, including those on your hosting control panel, admin accounts, database passwords, etc. If you see admin accounts that you did not authorise, remove them.
- Perform Website Scan – Use security plugins to scan your website.
- Inspect Codes – Look for unfamiliar codes in wp-content or .htaccess files.
- Check Updates – Ensure that everything is updated, including WordPress, plugins, and themes.
- Upload Backup – Restore your site from a clean backup file.
You should also contact your hosting company or hosting provider and let them know about the attack, even if you’ve repaired it.
If you aren’t sure how to do any of the above or you don’t have the time, contact the professionals at Website Helpers Perth to get your website security under control and back online.
Is it Possible to Recover a Hacked Website?
Yes, it is, but it takes immediate, decisive action and attention to detail.
This time-consuming task is something no business owner looks forward to.
The breach or malicious code must be found and the infected areas of the website must be restored to their original coding.
To protect your website and databases, all passwords associated with the site must be changed, including passwords for the hosting company or hosting provider.
The site needs to be scanned using website scanning tools to ensure that no security incidents or unauthorised changes remain.
All software, plugins, and themes must be updated before the site can be brought back online.
Contact Website Helpers Perth!
The truth is that most people don’t have the time (or want to spend their valuable time) or lack the knowledge to do a thorough job of removing malicious content.
Failure to remove all unwanted content and create a clean backup of your website can result in your site being hacked in the future- the very near future!
Your time is valuable. You should spend it on your business, not removing malware and trying to find ways to prevent future attacks.
Put your worries to rest by contacting Website Helpers Perth today. The peace of mind you receive from knowing that your site is up to date and that steps have been taken to prevent your website from being hacked is priceless!
Won’t a Hacked Website Just Go Away on Its Own?
Will a hacked website fix itself?
Unfortunately, no.
What will happen is that Google will penalise your website, and your website traffic will hit rock bottom.
Even if you successfully remove the problem, many hackers leave themselves a backdoor, so to speak, allowing them easy access to your site again.
Customers start receiving spam emails or phishing emails. It gets worse when they look for answers and only get redirects.
Stolen customer data can lead to lawsuits when your customer’s identities are stolen, and by then, you can kiss your business goodbye.
You need to take immediate and strong action to prevent hackers from taking over your website and to secure your website from future attacks.
Why Choose Website Helpers Perth?
Today’s world is fraught with digital threats, making cyber security and repair a huge priority.
A hacked website can cause you to lose sales and your customers’ trust, and can even lead to costly lawsuits.
We Repair, Secure & Maintain Websites
At Website Helpers Perth, our focus is to repair, clean, secure, and maintain your website so you can take care of your business and not worry about hackers.
We Have Years of Experience
Our security experts have years of experience and can spot suspicious activity, often within a few hours.
Of course, no one can guarantee that your site will never get hacked again. Scammers create new access paths and opportunities daily.
We Detect Hackers Immediately
Fortunately, when you hire Website Helpers Perth to maintain your website, we will know almost immediately if your site has been hacked and we will repair it, booting the hacker into cyberspace.
Services We Offer
Our expert team offers the following services:
- Weekly Plugin Updates
- Weekly Theme Updates
- Daily Clean Backups of your website
- Broken Link Check (stop hackers from redirects)
- 24/7 Daily Security Monitoring (enables us to spot hackers within minutes)
- Manual QA Site Review after all updates
- Weekly Contract Form Checks to prevent lost leads and spam emails
- Contact Form Protection
- Monthly Reporting
- Free 2 Hours each Month for Website Fixes (this alone is worth $378!)
- Discounted Pricing for developer hours if required
Best of all, you can cancel anytime! We offer month-to-month services and NO LONG-TERM CONTRACTS!
Prevention is Always Better than Repairs!
Your hosting provider will only help with your website files or website security AFTER your site has been hacked.
Website Helpers Perth offers malware scans, removal of malware, firewall protections and daily backups of your site so you’ll never have to worry about getting your site up and running ever again!
Contact Website Helpers Perth Today!
Our expert team is always happy to talk about any website problem or website security issues you may be having. Even if you don’t “speak the lingo”, we can explain it in ways that make sense to the average person!
We are Australian-owned and operated. We understand your needs and know what you expect.
Don’t trust your website security to just anyone! Call the most trusted name in the industry, Website Helpers Perth!
Our support team is here to help and answer all of your questions! Call us today!