Is your website functioning unusually? Are you seeing spam content or suspicious advertisements on your site? For this kind of issue, your answer will be here. Security is a most important concern for every website owner, so you must be aware of how a site became hacked and the solutions for securing the server.
How do I know my Website is Hacked?
It may occur through various methods, like unknown access through FTP. The hacker injects malicious codes into your website content that will lead to malfunctioning your website. This malicious code can lead to installing malware on your user’s computer and this will affect your security and online popularity.
For preventing these situations you must know about how a site can be hacked, so let us go through each kind of possibility.
Signs Of Hacked Site
There are mainly 7 signs of a website getting hacked ;
- Sudden change or popups in websites
- Your website redirects to an unknown site
- Spam links or ads that display suspicious content (eg : adult content, illegal activities etc.)
- The site is became ranking for spam keywords in Google search results.
- Chance of your visitors get blocked by a Google warning like the site ahead contains malware, the site may be hacked.
- Presence of unusual Java script like code in your website.
- Your website is deactivated or suspended by your hosting company due to suspicious activity.
Let us go through each criterion in detail.
1. Sudden change or popups in websites
If a hacker gets to access your server, there is a chance of making changes to your site. It may be by adding some subtitles, links to external links, changes in content. Sometimes we may be not noticed these small things, but it will reduce our online reputation.
2. Your website redirects to an unknown site
The hackers will add some external links or malicious links to your site links. It may be for some sub-links that which is not noticed by you. So due to this when a user accesses that link will lead to another site or unwanted site that will lead to reducing your business.
3. Spam links or ads that display suspicious content (eg: adult content, illegal activities, etc.)
In this case, we can see suspicious ads or links when browsing your website, it will lead to blacklisting your site and reducing your site reputation.
4. The site is became ranking for spam keywords in Google search results.
As a result of hackers adding spam content to your websites, your site will become highly listed in Google search results for spam-type keywords. It will decrease your site reputation and business. Also in Google analytics for your site if you notice unusual traffic to your website. You should check it thoroughly to confirm that everything is normal. If several users are leaving your website then check for the reason, because if there is hacked content in your website pages it will affect the website traffic. Also if there is an increase in user access to the website you should check it also, because there is a chance of hackers can add external link redirection from your site links. So it will show the traffic to your site as high but not in your business growth.
5. Chance of your visitors get blocked by a Google warning like the site ahead contains malware, the site may be hacked.
This occurs when Google has blacklisted your site and when a user is trying to access your site then Google will show like “Deceptive site ahead or The site ahead contains malware or the site may be hacked”. This is because your website is containing suspicious content and Google needs to protect its users from deceptive and harmful websites. So it is showing this kind of warning before loading the page.
6. Presence of unusual Java script-like code in your website.
This kind of strange-looking and cryptic javascript code present in your website files shows that your website is under attack. These codes will help hackers to steal credit card information, other sensitive information, and passwords, etc. Doing regular a security audit for your server will help to prevent this kind of malicious code injection.
7. Your website is deactivated or suspended by your hosting company due to suspicious activity.
If your website has noticed any suspicious content or activity then your hosting company will suspend or deactivate your website from their hosting by informing you. The suspicious activity includes malicious code in the website, sending spam or phishing emails from your site, the domain has been blocked by Google.
How to prevent websites from getting hacked?
- Monitor your site up to date
You have to investigate the issues in your website carefully without avoiding them. A speed or crashed-like issue maybe sometimes not be a chance of hacking. But you have to investigate each issue without neglecting them or contact professional assistance if you needed.
2. Remove Malicious codes
You should scan your website files for malicious files frequently so that you can identify if there are any faulty codes injected into your website codes. Remove those faulty codes from your server and keep your software platform in which your website runs up to date.
Our Weekly Server Auditing on our server management plan will cover this security scanning for your website.
3. Secure your server using a firewall
By using a firewall will protect your server from suspicious access and also like web application firewall will be able to block malicious bots from entering your site.
4. Harden your server and website
Hardening your server and website will help you to prevent Hacking. It can be done by using strong passwords for users, installing SSL for the domain, two-factor authentication for login, limited login attempts, WAF like firewalls, Setting correct required permissions for files and users.
5. Choose a Good Web Host
If you choose a good web hosting company for managing your website, they will do these types of security measures for preventing hacking. Regular server auditing done by them will help to keep high your domain reputation and uptime. Recommend using your own VPS server with proper management than shared hostings.
Our 24×7 Support Team will be available for making your server and website up to date under all our Server Management plans
6. Remove Google Blacklist
After the complete removal of suspicious activity and content on your website, you can approach Google to remove your website from blacklisting, and then they will evaluate your site for if any malicious activity still remains. No doubt, dealing with a hacked site will be more of a load for you, and also without inspecting the exact reason for the issue will lead to more complexity. Don’t worry we are always here to assist you.
If you are facing any hack issues with your website or server, contact our support team right now to get it fixed and secured.
