Your Website Hacked Here Is What You Should Do Now!

Your Website Hacked Here Is What You Should Do Now! Make Money Online Queries? Struggling To Get Traffic To Your Blog? Sign Up On (HBB) Forum Now!Your Website Hacked? Here Is What You Should Do Now!Updated On 02/02/2016Author : Pradeep KumarTopic : SecurityShort URL : http://hbb.me/1m8P5mt CONNECT WITH HBB ON SOCIAL MEDIA Follow @HellBoundBlogI dont know how secure your website is, how popular your web hosting is, but trust me, its possible to hack them. Think of any popular website, its possible to hack them. It might be difficult but not impossible. This is the current scenario of the Internet world. There are plenty of hackers out there, some good and some bad hackers. Then, some script kiddies who have no idea what they are doing, more importantly, why they are doing.Its always better to be cautious now than to worry about this later. If your website has been hacked or if you are worried that your website might be hacked, then follow this simple essential guide to solve this issue smoothly. These are some personal tips which we applied when we experienced malware hack for some blogs we were maintaining.Website Hacked? Follow These Things!IMAGE CREDIT: YURI SAMOILOV / FLICKR1. Stay Calm FocussedJust stop the other works you are doing. Pause your torrent download. Close all the other irrelevant tabs. Keep your phone in silent mode. Avoid distractions, just focus on your website for the time being. This is very important because you shouldnt be focused on your unwanted Facebook or Twitter notifications.2. Take Down Your WebsiteMake the website offline. Use an under-construction page (even maintenance page works) or maybe redirect your website to your official Facebook/Twitter profile. If your readers or customers are seeing a hacked web page (or even a browser warning) then itll surely spoil your brands reputation and they wont really come back. Especially if you are running an eCommerce store then your visitors (or future customers) will be afraid to share their credit card or any payment info on your websi te.So I think a little downtime is okay for managing your websites reputation. This not only helps your website but also for other people who visit your website, sometimes hacked websites have malicious code scripts installed and itll affect the ones who visit your site as well.3. Change Your PasswordsIts better to change all your passwords (WordPress, Hosting, Database everything) when your website is hacked. You can even change all the email addresses associated with your website as well. Itll be hard for the hackers to crack the original password and know what is that, but still, its good to have a new set of passwords for better security.ARE YOU SURE YOUR WEBSITE PASSWORD IS SECURE? HOW SECURE?Essential (And Easy) Tips For Creating Secure And Strong Passwords4. Contact Your HostingGo to your web hosting account, create a support ticket and at the same time, open a support chat to let them know about this hack. Suppose if your website is redirecting to some other hacked website, then you can also inform your domain registrar regarding this.READCreate Safe Secure Email Address For Your ChildrenAs a Web Hosting provider, it is their core duty to protect your website and your server, but sometimes the blame is on us as well, if our websites security is poor then there is nothing else we can do to be honest. If you have infected website template or bad passwords, then they can easily hack your website with basic techniques.5. Scan Your WebsiteYou can use online scanners like Sucuri for scanning your website for any malware or hack related issues. They have a free tool to scan your website and let you know about the condition. I used a demo website and you can see the results below.You can also install Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV) on your cPanel which scans for any malicious programs on your server.6. Find The CulpritNow here is the most critical part, you have to act like Sherlock Holmes, analyze what might have caused this hack. Which loophole? Which silly mistak e? Which security flaw? I think itll be wise to list out the last 5 actions you did on your website for the past one week. Did you install any new WordPress plugin, did you install any Analytics script or did you install any theme you downloaded from the Internet (Malicious maybe?).If you are so confused, its good to undo all those things. Uninstall the plugins you have, change your website theme, remove all the scripts you recently added and most importantly, make sure you have a backup of these things before proceeding. Taking a backup of your blog/website is very essential.6. Inform Your ReadersAs a webmaster, or a blogger, or a brand owner, it is your duty to inform your readers/customers/members about what happened. Sometimes its good to be honest, but sometimes its up to you to decide.If you are a Blogger, then you can write a blog post about what happened, how this hack was possible, tell them the steps you did to fix this and much more. Itll be a good experience post, you kn ow, you can advise your readers on the security measures you have taken now.IMPLEMENT THESE SECURITY ACTIONS NOW TO PREVENT ANOTHER HACK:Website Security Checklist: Have You Completed All These Steps?These are some of the basic actions you should take when your website or blog is hacked. If you know any other essential measures then do kindly share them in the comments below.