Sometimes, websites are attacked by hackers or malware. When running a site based on WordPress, we should know how to recognize a possible attack, remove its effects and provide our service with better protection for the future.

How to recognize that the site has been attacked?

Not always the attack is obvious at first glance, so you need to check regularly that everything is fine with our site. We can often receive information about hacking the website in a message from our hosting service. A clue may also be a warning displayed by the browser when accessing the site, indicating that the site is dangerous.

Google webmaster tools can provide us with a lot of valuable information. The signal that something bad happens to the site will be its sudden disappearance from the index or the indexing of large amounts of suspicious subpages that are not related to the subject of the site.

That’s why it’s worth checking the email associated with the site, visiting your website frequently and checking the webmaster tools. Regular monitoring of the site will allow us to quickly identify possible problems and take appropriate action.

How to deal with the consequences of hacking or infecting a page with malware?

If we notice any of the symptoms described above, we must act as soon as possible. The first step should be to disable the site. This is the only way to protect users from exposing themselves to unsafe software and your website from losing trust in the eyes of visitors.

Then update all plugins you use. Their latest versions will have up-to-date security features, which can protect the website from subsequent attacks. It is also necessary to change the login and password in the administration panel.

It is very important to check if any new page files appeared. If you find them, you must delete them as soon as possible. The next step should be to identify possible problems and analyze the database and page for malicious code.