Do you suspect a hacker attacked you? Are now thinking on how to clean my website from malware? You got to the right place. We will explain to you how to clean up malware for inexperienced users. Every day hackers get into websites and block to infect them to spread more infections.
There are some other more complex cases, in which other features are exploded. A deeper technical knowledge is needed to get rid of those menaces. To enhance your security is important once your site has been compromised. You can follow some security best practices on password protection, form filling, and security updates.
Unfortunately, that is not enough for advanced hackers. They already know how to go around most security measures to break a site. Advanced protection like antivirus for websites and continuous monitoring services is advisable.
The Hidden Menace
Hackers are aware of people looking for strange things embedded on their web pages. The suspicious text will immediately lead to looking on how to clean my website from malware, and then they won’t be able to use that particular site anymore.
Even novice hackers will use a particular attribute to display malicious links. The display=none attribute will prevent visitors and site owners from finding the intruder links. Nobody looks for how to clean up malware until they have irrefutable evidence of a problem.
A naked human eye cannot see the malicious links, but search engine bots can. You can get de-indexed from search engines like Google if such links are found. It is easy to find the unwanted links, but you have to look for them. Here is what you should do:
- Open your source code on a web browser.
- Most browsers let you go to the Page Source under the View menu.
- Check for the and tags for strange links.
- Look for links next to the “display=none” attribute.
If you know your code, then you will quickly identify the links that should not be there. If this is the first time you are looking at it, the malicious code will usually lead to porn or gambling websites. You can check the links you found or if they are obvious, just ban them.
To remove the unwanted links, you have to change the existing files, eliminating the unwanted links. Once you have changed it, double check if the links are really gone. If you have not identified the source of the infection, it is a good idea to change your admin password. Make it a strong one to avoid further intruders inside your site. Also, change the FTP password and set the file permission (chmod) attributes to read only.
To make a fresh installation of WordPress or any other software you are using to manage your site is advisable. This will ensure no injected files were left in the previous attack. But again, there might be a security issue left.
All these actions might prevent further intrusions to your website. However, some other vulnerability could have been exploded. Check if you have the most recent updates and look in a couple of days if your code is free of unwanted links. Take another week before you can declare victory over the links you just eradicated. If the problem continues, it is best to look for professional help.
Google’s Diagnosis
To identify if you need to clean up malware from your site, you can look at Google’s diagnosis from your website. Google ranks if it is safe to browse on your web page. To view your report, go to the following place:
http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=[SITE NAME]
Before you enter the address in your browser, change the [SITE NAME] to your site address. You will be able to know if you need assistance on cleaning website from malware, but Google will not display the sort of malware you have been attacked. You can try to scan your website with our free scanner or use Norton free scan. You can make a free website scan here:
https://www.siteguarding.com/en/sitecheck
If you have a problem, our scanner will give you the solution. Norton has a broad range of products for end users and websites.
Closing Advice
Every malware is different, and you should get professional help who know how to clean up malware. Most times, when a site has been compromised, there are symptoms you can see. However back doors can be left even after you have cleaned your site from those symptoms.
It is important to contact the experts and get a deep cleaning. Get them to continuously monitor your web page. Even if there are no visible symptoms, and you just have occasional low performance, you can be infected. Hackers use your computer power to host sites, redirect traffic, commit fraud, send spam or any other possible criminal activity you can think of. They might not want to address you or your visitors, and those are the worse infections.
To remain unseen is the objective when your website is used for criminal activity. It can lead to legal issues to the rightful owner. While the investigations are taking place, your site might be closed, and you will lose ranking and traffic. It is better to prevent than regret. Besides following the best practice on security for websites, get a professional company to monitor your page.
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