Learn how to check if your website is hacked
Having a website online requires upkeep and maintenance. Too many people rely on their web host to keep their site secure but as a website owner you need to be proactive in securing and maintaining your website. Your we host can only protect you from specific attacks but if your website code has an exploit you’ll be responsible. Let’s discuss a few ways to check if your website is hacked.
Scan your website for hacked files
The first thing you should do if you think your website is hacked is to run a virus and malware scan. Most hosting companies offer a virus scanner inside their control panel. You can ask your web host if they have a free virus scanner tool. Sucuri is a security company that offers a Free Website Scanner. Run a free scan on your website and if you’re exploited you’ll see a list of the hacked pages or malware URL’s.
Note: No virus or malware scanner is perfect. The free scanners are never 100% accurate but are a good start.
Check your website traffic for spikes
If you typically get 100 visitors a day and notice your traffic spikes significantly it’s worth investigating. A good indication if you run WordPress is if you get a large volume of spam comments. More importantly look at where your traffic originates from. If your visitors are mostly from the United States and then all of a sudden you see a large spike from foreign countries it could be an indication. You need to pay attention to your website Analytics. I like to use Clicky. It provides analytics for your website to show you where your traffic originates from. It will tell you which website the visitor originated from, their country, language and which pages they visited. Analytics in general are important for any website owner. It helps you understand your web traffic and can give you insight on how you can optimize your website as well.
Use Google Webmaster Tools
Google is a great resource I recommend to every website owner. They offer free tools for web masters to scan their website and understand traffic. They offer a bunch of tools to identify issues with your website. It’s totally free and a must have! It’s fairly simple to setup and Google will guide you through the verification process, it takes a few minutes. It will also give you access to Google Analytics which is free as well.
Google Webmaster Tools dashboard
Analyze your PHP files and website
Understanding your website files is a great way to find exploited content. Almost all hacks are due to vulnerable code in PHP files. Keep your website files in a structure you understand. The less clutter you have the easier it will be to spot a hacked file. Use an FTP program to look at your website files and folder and take a screenshot if it helps you. That way you can go back every so often and to see if you notice any odd file or folder names.
Check your .htaccess file. The .htaccess file is a target for hackers so open the file with a text editor to see if you notice anything suspicious. If you don’t understand the .htaccess file as your web hosting provider to have a quick look for you. They will be helpful as they also want to protect their network from hackers.
Be proactive with your website security
Nobody wants to get hacked but being ignorant is not an excuse. As a website owner you need to maintain your website and not reply on anyone else including your web host. If you use open source software such as WordPress then make sure you keep WordPress updated. Update your plugins at least once a week. If you use a WordPress Theme make sure it’s current and updated. Plugin and theme developers often release updates which contain security fixes so it’s critical to be current!
If your theme is hacked see if there is an update from the developer. If not then do not use the same theme. You’ll just be asking for trouble. When it coems to WordPress security using a good theme is extremely important. Check out ThemeForest for paid themes that are well maintained by the developers.
Use security plugins such as WordFence if you’re using WordPress. It’s free and offers a ton of features to protect your website.
Change your passwords often. Do you think your password is impossible to hack? Think again. Hackers have tools to break passwords, don’t ask how just understand that you need to change your password every few months and make sure you use a strong password. If you find you can’t remember your passwords use a password manager such as 1Password. I love 1Password because it stores ALL of your passwords for websites you login to. It’s secure and even syncs between your different devices.
Avoid using public wifi networks when possible. If you’re at your local coffee shop don’t login to your websites admin panel or enter passwords. Far too many people think that they are secure and you’ll be surprised how weak some public wifi spots are in terms of security.
Has your website been hacked?
If your website was unfortunately hacked we want to hear from you. Please leave a comment and tell us more information on how you were able to clean or fix it. Your comments will go a long way for others!
