What do I do if my website has been hacked?
If you’ve been a website owner for any length of time, you’ve likely heard about sites getting hacked into or you’ve been hacked yourself. However, when you keep your site secure and use the proper measures from the very beginning of your site’s creation, you’ll never have to deal with the dreaded experience of a hacked site.
Way back when I first started I had no idea about any of this being a risk. My passwords weren’t all that secure and sure enough I had my site hacked into. It was expensive to fix and a few days of lost business which was anxiety inducing. Don’t let this be you.
But, if you’re reading this post I presume that you suspect that your site has been hacked. You’re seeing crazy code on your site? When you search your site in google, you’re seeing something completely inappropriate? You can’t get to your site without it saying your site has malware? All these things say that your site is most likely hacked, but how do we know for sure?
Scan your site
The first thing you want to do is scan your site right here. It will run a check on your site and tell you if it suspects malware on your site.
If you are seeing some odd things on your site and suspect malware but this scan is telling you there isn’t malware on your site, get in touch with your hosting provider. They will be able to help you pinpoint where the issue may be coming from. The next step might just be to rule out a plugin conflict.
Hire the right people
If your search comes back that your site in fact has Malware on it, there is no other route to go than to hire the right people to get it taken care of for you. This is not the time to hire someone who isn’t really all that sure what they are doing. It’s the time to hire the people who do this business every single day, can get your entire infected site cleaned, and remove you from being backlisted in search engines.
My recommendation is to hire Sucuri immediately. I do realize their rates are a bit high, but this fee is so worth it to get your site cleaned up without losing everything you’ve worked so hard for.
If you are just starting out and don’t really have any content on your site, you can completely delete your site and start over if you would prefer and save the funds.
Secure your site
After your site is all cleaned up and back to normal, it’s time to make certain your site is completely secure to prevent a hack from happening again. Once your site has been hacked into, it’s very likely that it can happen again. This is the reason for paying for a year of service with Sucuri so they can continue to monitor your site and help keep it secure.
For more tips on how to keep your website secure moving forward be sure to see this article Stephanie wrote with lots of helpful information!
