A hacked website is really frustrating – it is troublesome for its business and visitors, and removing a hack can be time-consuming. Let’s go through the fastest and easiest way to fix a hacked website.
1. Let’s check for warnings
If you’ve seen “This site contains malware” or “The site ahead contains harmful programs” in connection with your site, there’s definitely a problem. To check further, go to https://sitecheck.sucuri.net and enter your domain name.
- If your website’s been hacked, you’ll see a warning here.
- No warning? It’s less likely (but still possible) that your website has been compromised.
2. Change your passwords
If your site’s been hacked, you need to immediately change all of your passwords listed below. To know how to create strong passwords, follow the post How to Create Strong Passwords.
| Your hosting type | Passwords to reset |
|---|---|
| Linux Hosting with cPanel | Primary FTP, secondary FTP, databases, apps like WordPress or Joomla |
| Windows Hosting with Plesk | Primary FTP, secondary FTP, databases, apps like WordPress or Joomla |
| Web & Classic Hosting | Primary FTP, secondary FTP, MySQL databases, MS SQL databases, apps like WordPress or Joomla |
3. Restore from backup
If you have a backup of your website (and database) that you know wasn’t corrupted, you should re-upload it to your hosting account.
4. Remove the hack
It’s nearly impossible for anyone to reliably remove malware from a website by hand. To remove the compromise from your files, we recommend using an application like Website Security Solution from Sucuri. Using its automatic malware scan technology, it will not only find any compromises in your files, but it also removes them.
5. Identify & fix the weakness
To prevent your site from getting hacked again, you should identify how your site was compromised. There are two types of weaknesses: passwords and structural problems.
6. Passwords
Most hacks happen because the attacker was able to guess your account’s password by brute force. By simply changing your password (and using a stronger one this time), you can prevent these attacks from succeeding in the future.
7. Structural
These types of weaknesses require thorough testing to identify. There’s a lot of security software that can perform these types of scans but, again, we recommend Website Security Solution from Sucuri. It can identify a number of different issues, as well as help you fix them.
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