14 Signs your Website Hacked
Introduction :
Many users find out that their website is hacked on getting the “Red Screen of Death” on Google. This is harmful for your website, meaning it’s been very long since your website compromised while also affecting your site’s privacy and reputation.
Online businesses are increasing day by day which includes handling everything from online e-commerce transactions, customer data, payments and marketing etc. Websites running online businesses should be secured so it can’t be hacked.
Security is an on-going process whether you have started a new website or running an old website. Most of the people still ask the question of how to tell if you website is hacked. Hence, it’s very important to know it before it gets too late.
What is Website Hacking?
Website hacking corresponds to the prohibited entry, fraud, or interruption to a website’s operation, information, or protection. Hackers can attack websites for an array of reasons, including stealing confidential data, transmitting malware, damaging the site, or exposing deficiencies to obtain private benefit.
Web hackers may lead to serious problems for website proprietors and users, like security breaches, revenue losses, negative publicity, and legal penalties. Website owners have to use safety precautions, which include encrypted data, firewalls, and frequent updates in order to protect their sites from these kinds of attacks.
Signs of Website Hacked:
Every website no matter who is hosting it or where it is hosted, or the development team size, can be hacked. Regardless of whether your website is secured or not or serving on HTTPS, it can be hacked if necessary security measures are not taken. Many people are not sure if their site is hacked and they are still searching for the answer of how to tell if you website is hacked. Hackers never ask before hacking, so here are some signs that show that your website compromised..
Browser Shows a Warning:
You must be wondering what are the first signs of being hacked. So, if you or your user see a warning message on screen which is saying that your website may get hacked, it is probably. Popular browsers such as Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Opera use Google’s blacklist so they can show warning signs to its visitors. You or your user see this if your website is blacklisted by Google Safe Browsing or any other browsing safe mode.
When your website is hacked, Google or other browsers show some warning messages. Such messages depend on the type of issues or problems your website is experiencing.
GSC Sends a Message:
If your website is connected with GSC (Google Search Console), then you will receive a message from Google highlighting your hacked websites. You will receive this message if Google has detected some malicious activity, spammy content or has a doubt that your website compromised.
This message from Google will contain the details of suspected URLs.
Hosting Agency Incapacitate your Website:
Website hosting agencies scan their servers regularly to check any malicious activity hence they immediately disable hacked websites. Doing this makes them sure that infection is not spreading to other websites on that specific server. There are many reasons because of which your hosting agency can incapacitate your website including:
- Suspicious code is found on the server
- Google or other browser’s safe mode blacklisted your website domain
- Spam emails are sent by your server
- Due to suspicious activity on your website, increase in the usage of CPU
Disabled Outbound Ports:
Some hosting agencies do not disable completely instead they limit resources to your site. Such hosting agencies have an automated system to block outbound ports connections for your account such as 80, 443, 465 and 587. These security precautions help to stop the malware infection and stop it from spreading to more servers.
Once the malware issue is resolved from the server, your hacked websites has to go through the automated virus scanning and after passing it, you can request to get unblocked.
Customers Cards Hacked:
It’s an era of technology where new techniques are evolved to extract information. Like this, hackers have also evolved and they have made new techniques to extract credit card information from a website hacked. These card details are sold on the dark web which are used for fraud transactions which vary from $1 to $1000 or more.
The malware attacks happen due to the loss of security of your e-Commerce website. If you are using a content management system then you would definitely see critical security breaches in the installed plugins.
Spam Emails:
Hackers most of the time use malware on the hacked site to send spammy emails to various people. Email servers around the globe have a spam detector to detect such types of emails and they blacklist the server and IP address. Because of this, your legit emails end up in the spam folder of the receiver. This results in loss of business and reputation online.
Unusual JavaScript:
If you see any unusual looking JavaScript in the web page source code, immediately delete it. This unusual JavaScript can be used to get password, credit card information, or other sensitive information. This can also be used to redirect your visitors to other spammy websites, advertisements etc.
Slow Website:
If you are noticing that your website has become very slow and showing error messages, then it should be because malware is using server resources. Most of the pages that are targeted are the checkout page, login page, payment or signup pages. A normal website load in 4 seconds while it takes 10 seconds or more to load if the website is at risk.
Unusual Error Messages:
If you get unexpected messages in error logs about condemned functionality, denied connection or any other errors. If the error looks unfamiliar then verify the authenticity or start a malware scan.
New Admin Users:
If you find any new admin users, FTP users, database users then it is a strong indicator that your website is hacked. Hackers left such accounts to get access to your website and server in future. These websites are used as a backdoor and they get access to your website whenever they want to access it.
Files Modification:
If you notice any file modification, then compare the files with earlier versions to understand what file has been changed. The hackers can also modify the spammy activities, or send spam emails.
If there are suspicious files, server-side scripts files in the upload directories, it can indicate that your website is hacked.
Pop-Ups on Website:
If visitors on your website see spammy advertisements or popups, it is a strong indicator that your website is hacked due to cross-site scripting. Hackers get money from ad impressions. The Google team will send you an email highlighting that they have found some spammy content on your website.
Redirections:
If your website is redirected to spammy pages, compromised websites or any competitor websites then it is a strong indicator that your website is hacked. Hackers redirect your web traffic to malicious pages which is also harmful for your website.
Traffic Spike:
Spam advertisements are used by hackers which cause an increase in traffic to your website. Hackers send spammy emails from your server that have the links of existing or new pages, created by hackers. Spam advertisements can harm your blogs, forums, website and comments section which have hyperlinks to get higher search engine rankings for the hacker’s website.
How to Fix the Hacked Websites?
You know the answer to the commonly asked question of how to tell if you website is hacked. Now you have identified that your website is hacked, you would have got clarity of what to do next. You should not be worrying about anything now and the only thing left is to repair your website hacked. There are three ways to clean up your hacked website which includes:
Cleaning up the Security Plugin:
The safest way to clean up the website hacked is through the WordPress security plugin. We recommend you to use WordPress security plugins to clean up your website as it is efficient and fast. If your website is hacked and you have restored it then you have to clean up all the mess that has been created to prevent such a situation in the future.
Hire an Expert:
Another way to clean up your website is to hire us. We go through your website and identify malware and vulnerabilities. Finding out these backdoors is important in identifying the cause of the hack. If you lose access to your website, we help you regain it through your web host.
Restore the Damage:
Hackers have made much damage to your website and you have to bear the consequences. You can reverse the damage which is caused by such malware attacks by following the given steps:
Remove Unauthorized Users from GSC:
Go to your GSC so that you can remove any unauthorized user from your Google Search Console account. If you see unauthorized users then it would be somehow difficult to remove them.
Beside removing users from Google Search Console, you should also delete the associated verification code from the .htaccess file on your site. You should follow Google’s guide to remove unauthorized users properly. Also, back up your website before making changes in anything.
Clean up Caches:
Get rid of the saved copies of your website compromised as it can have malware. Although, you have got your website back still there is a possibility of having malware infection in any of the files. This can include caches, plugins etc.
Protect from Being Hacked:
It is an old saying that prevention is better than cure which is quite true actually. It not only applies to your health but to your website as well. Hence it is important to take care of your website’s health. So, here are some important points that you should be considering so you can bring yourself out from this website hacked situation.
Security Plugin:
To enhance your website security, use the security plugin. WordPress has many security plugins that scan your website regularly and keep your website secured. If your plugin identifies any suspicious activity then it alerts you and hence helps you protect your website.
Use Themes and Plugins from Trusted Sources:
Using WordPress is beneficial as it is customizable. Plugins and themes help you to customize your website as they are the essential part for your site. If these are harmful in any way then your website is at high risk. Always install extensions from trusted sources and never use plugins from suspicious sites.
Two Step Factorization:
Hackers get access to your website by using force attacks. Such hackers use bots to send thousands of login requests to break your website’s security and ultimately they succeed. These tricks are very common and hackers use them commonly. An easy way to stop it is by using two step factorization for your website and website users.
Apply two step factorization on login credentials with which your users will have to generate a password in real time to get access to your website.