You will be surprised to know that over 100,000 websites get hacked daily. It becomes difficult to recover a hacked website and it is even more applicable if you have very little technical expertise. But you don’t have to worry as recovering a hacked website is like any other challenge that you should take up. It is definitely not easy but it is not the end of the world either. So before we look into WordPress site hacked help, it is better to know the following:
Why WordPress Websites Get Hacked?
In this session of knowing why get WordPress Site Hacked, most people have a misconception that their websites are not prone to attacks as they hardly have any sensitive business info or valuable information. However, most hackers have other reasons for hacking websites. These are:
- Spreading the malware
- Adding bandwidth to bot networks for DDoS attacks
- Black-hat SEO techniques
- For personal amusement and interest of hackers
As soon as you make your website live, there is some other risk. Approx 38% of the total website of the world are WordPress-based. This needs no further explanation for why WordPress websites are desired targets for hackers. Along with this learning, WordPress Contact Forms Plugins VW Themes have a greater way of explaining it.
Reasons Why WordPress Sites Get Hacked?
1. Most WordPress Websites Lack Basic Security
There are many ways of protecting your website from hackers but what happens is, average website owners often forget to implement the best practices for securing the WP site. That is the reason why it is always better to go for the WordPress Two Factor Authentication plugin. With the Two-Factor Authentication, you are reducing the chances of hackers intruding on your website. It also applies even when they steal your credentials.
2. Sites Using Outdated WordPress Version
By using outdated plugins and WordPress themes, you are exposing yourself to security loopholes that hackers can perfectly exploit. This is one of the common reasons for WP websites getting hacked. There are plenty of free scanning tools as well as scrips in the hackers’ weaponry for infiltrating your website.
3. Use of Weak Passwords By Admin
As a user password is your first line of defense, it needs to be strong enough. Hackers can easily guess weak passwords and gain the access to your website thus gaining the same privileges that you are obtaining from your website. So always try to include a capital letter, special character, and put up at least 8 characters long password.
WordPress Site Hacked Help
When knowing that your WordPress Site Hacked, many of you might get panicked while dealing with the hacking event. We have listed a few steps that are very simple to implement and you need to make sure that they are always in your mind as these will serve as WordPress site hacked help.
1. Don’t Get Panicked
Losing calm won’t set things right so you need to take a deep breath and don’t get mad at things as this is not going to help you in such a situation. So do keep your focus in place and concentrate on finding solutions instead.
2. Find The Hack
You need to ascertain a few things when you are dealing with your hacked website. First, see if you can log in using your WordPress Admin Panel. See if your web address is redirecting you to another website. Also, look for illegal links. Another thing is to check whether Google considered your website as unsecured. It is important to take the next step easy.
3. Contact Your Hosting Provider
Most of the reputed hosting companies will never leave you alone in this situation and will assist you. They have experienced staff who have dealt with such situations. So before you make any move ask the hosting provider for some valuable advice.
In case you are using a shared hosting server, this makes it easy for you to determine if the hacker has used some other website on your share to get to yours in this case, your hosting provider will have the answers that you are looking for. Also, the hosting provider will be able to tell you about your website’s backdoor and which part of the website got compromised.
4. Get Professional’s Help If Your WordPress Website Is Hacked
If your website’s hacking attack is too bad to handle, it is always better to hire a professional to deal with it. Cleaning such a website is the best thing you can do as a vulnerable website gets only harder to recover the longer you keep on waiting. So the faster you fix the issues, the safer your site becomes. To approach a profession is the best choice you have especially if you are not well versed with the technology. Because if you are unsure of what you are doing then you are only going to mess up the things and make them worse. When you are not at all comfortable in making any changes to the website’s backend, it is the right time to find professional support.
5. Restore From The Backup
If you regularly take a backup of your website then you must pat your back. With this, you can always restore the previous version of your website i.e. the version before your website got hacked. This means that the content and other changes published on your website will disappear but it is definitely a good way to get a clean website back. Losing the changes is a very small price to pay in order to obtain a clean site. But do keep in mind that once you restore your website with this method, you need to implement more security measures on your website. Add more security plugins as this will help you avoid malicious attacks. If you think website backup is not an option, then cleaning the code manually will also work. However, this is recommended only when restoring to the older version of the website is bringing in too many valuable improvements.
6. Remove Malware By Scanning
Using outdated plugins and themes always helps hackers to get in. if you think that hackers have gained backdoor access to your website, you should install security plugins. This way, you will be able to locate all the backdoors as well as malicious codes present within your website. Even after you have finished the recovery process, keep it running as it allows you to remove threats before they actually become more serious.
7. Check User Permissions
Checking your WordPress users and their permissions will ascertain that only you and your team members have access to your admin accounts as this also shows if the count is got tampered with or any new user account got added.
8. Change The Passwords and Keys
Change all the passwords and secret keys related to your website once you are done as this is going to reforge your website’s safety and security. However, this doesn’t mean that you are 100% secure. That is why you always need to be vigilant. WordPress security is not a one-step process but a continuous effort.
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Conclusion:
With all the above-discussed points, you will be able to get an idea of how to deal if your WordPress site gets hacked. Hope you have got all the relevant points regarding WordPress site hacked help.
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