How to know if your WordPress site has been hacked, what to look out for?
At first you won’t even suspect that your WordPress has been hacked, this would be because there would be no noticeable changes to your site. In this day and age there are so many individuals who are advanced in hacking other people’s computers. Hackers these days are becoming more adaptable at accessing websites by secretly hiding malicious code into website files. This tends to happen when your software isn’t updated regularly or you are downloading plug-ins or themes from unreliable sources. If or when your website has been hacked, the hacker will then have access to yourself and your client’s personal information when ever they want until you update your software or fix your website.
With identity theft becoming more and more common these days, it’s in individuals’ best interests to learn how to determine if there WordPress has been hacked, this is so the problem can be addressed straight away and ensures that the situation isn’t escalated and more damage occurs. If you suspect or find that your WordPress site has been hacked, you will need to ensure that you act straight away, you will want to shut it down before your hosting provider shuts you down. This essentially means that you will want to guarantee that you have a WordPress backup program or a service in place before something such as this happens.
Checking to see if you have suspicious files on your webserver
Unless your experienced in what you are doing, then you will be unable to find which files the hacker has placed within your software. If you don’t know what you’re doing you could end up deleting the wrong files which could result in breaking your own website. It’s important to maintain backups of your files so that you can quickly restore your website in the event that your files are deleted. Compromised or destroyed whilst recovering your site or during a hacking.
If your lucky and you find the hack at an early stage, one way to see if there are usual files within your server is to see the date the files were added or modified. If certain files were uploaded within a day or so of the hack this could result in a problem in which your personal information and your website is at risk. This is why updating your files is so important. Don’t assume your software is safe again by just deleting files, these same or different files could be identical versions of your own and could be residing in other folders on your own website.
Unfamiliar access log entries
Access logs within your website can provide you with insight as to when and where your hacker was able to break into your website. This can be difficult to determine between good traffic to your site and the malevolent visitors who are attempting to hack your website. Experts within this field know what to look for and will preserve the information in the event it is needed for legal proceedings.
Taking a second look at your website for errors
Your WordPress site may look good to yourself when you first get it up and running however, if you look more closely, you could have spam showing up in your site header or footer that could be advertising unwanted products of information, which could include drugs or illegal activity. The problem is that you may not be able to spot this activity ever so easily as hackers can be very good at hiding this advertising as to where your unable to see. For instance, they could use white text on a white area on your page or dark text on a dark area, they do this so your unable to see the activity they are conducting. However, search engines will pick up this activity.
Reports from users and your hosting provider.
Its important that you pay attention to reports from your users as they may mention they are receiving spam emails or are being redirected from your WordPress site to another. You also might be unable to see what’s happening on your site due to the hacker blocking you from visually seeing what is happening. If your site is sending out spam, you can will hear from your hosting provider that an issue has occurred. You will then need to take quick action at this moment in time before your host shuts you down which could lead towards you being placed on googles blacklist.
It’s understandable that everyone is not always able to monitor their WordPress site on a daily basis, keep up with updates or updated on how to keep their site protected from hackers. This is why its suitable to hire experts to monitor your site and most importantly protect your reputation by keeping your website safe and up to date for yourself and its visitors.
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