WordPress is the world’s most popular website platform. It is highly secure, but some plugins and themes you may install are not always so safe. Sometimes, they can contain a gateway inside the website that hackers are looking for.
Thus, when you have a WordPress website, you must know how important it is to keep it secured. Even with basic security measures implemented into your website, there can still be a way for people with malicious intent to find access points to your website.
If that happens and your website gets hacked, you need to know how to react. So, let’s find out more about this topic!
How to Recognize if Your Website Is Hacked
A few signs that could make clear what is happening:
- You cannot log in to your WordPress dashboard and are sure the information is correct- you have been hacked.
- There is unfamiliar content on your website or even a message “you are hacked”. Some hackers like to make themselves known when they successfully hijack a website. If your homepage has been vandalized and you can see the hacker’s name or an announcement about it, you need to act immediately!
- Your website redirects to another website. Sometimes hackers will add a script that redirects people to another one when they visit yours. This will probably be a site you don’t want your users being taken to.
- A warning by Google Chrome- if you see a notice by Chrome, your site has likely been hacked and infected with malware.
- Ads and pop-ups- that you did not put there.
How to Fix a Hacked Website
Once you figure out your website is hacked, you need to stay calm. Anger and stress will surely help. You need to focus on finding a solution!
First, you should try to locate the hack. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Can I log in to my WordPress Admin Panel?
- Is my website redirecting me to another website?
- Does my website contain any illegal links?
- Did Google mark my website as insecure?
The next thing you should do is contact your hosting company. They are accommodating when it comes to these situations. Before doing anything by yourself, contact your hosting provider and stick to their advice.
If the website is hosted on a shared server, you can see if the hacker gained access to your website through another site on your server. In that case, your hosting provider can let you know how the hack started. Moreover, there is a chance they will tell you how it all happened and where is the loophole of your website.
Also, it would be best if you hired a professional after your website has experienced an attack. Professionals know how to easily and thoroughly clean it of any malware and suspicious content. Since a vulnerable website can worsen as time passes, the key is to fix all the issues as soon as possible so your website stays safe. It is always good to have someone who will help you if things get bad.
However, if you are keen on doing it yourself, we recommend you try out WP Reset and its Emergency Recovery Script. Both tools will help you in many ways if you face a malicious attack.
Emergency Recovery Script
Emergency Recovery Script is a standalone single-file, which is independent of WordPress. It is made to help you recover your WordPress site in various complicated situations.
Imagine you can’t log in for some reason, or you need to restore a snapshot, but you can’t open WP admin, or you can’t access admin at all. Perhaps you accidentally activated some plugin that blocked the whole site or installed a faulty theme.
With the Emergency Recovery Script, you can restore your website in a few clicks. The tool takes automatic snapshots before any changes to the website. Having a snapshot can save both your time and your website.
Even if you do not have access to your WordPress admin to restore one of the plugins, you can restore a snapshot from the Emergency Recovery Script. Great, right?
The Emergency Recovery Script is here to help you with a situation like a hacker attack. It is something to rely on to get your website to its previous state.
How Does Emergency Recovery Script Work
To get the most out of the Emergency Recovery Script, we recommend installing the WP Reset plugin. Once you install the plugin, you can quickly restore your WordPress website to its default state.
You will also be able to access and use some of its other great features! For example, you will be able to test your themes and plugins and reset or restore your WordPress, all of which can be done in just one click.
WP Reset
WP Reset is a WordPress plugin that comes equipped with advanced features that can greatly help you. You will be able to automatically activate your favorite themes and plugins, undo actions, remove demo data, and more.
The plugin also allows users to take their choice between One-Click Site Reset or WP-CLI standard command line. Database and automatic snapshots are also here for you to copy all your WordPress database tables saved in your current database.
Furthermore, you can use Partial Reset Tool, which allows you to reset individual tables that contain specific content, so you don’t have to do the complete reset. The plugin is also fully customizable according to your needs, which is really helpful.
You can even reset your whole WordPress database without logging in to the website. In addition, WP Reset provides you with some additional features, such as Nuclear Reset that will completely wipe clean your WordPress and leave you with a clean slate.
Maintenance Company
In general, WordPress is highly secure, but there are some plugins and themes that can affect its safety. Once you install a faulty plugin, hackers can easily access your website. Before you know it, your site is hacked and blacklisted by Google.
For this reason, it is important to regularly scan your WordPress websites for malware and any other malicious code. It is also equally important to actively monitor your website for any incoming threats.
Finding the best service that will take care of your WordPress site is not that easy. Even though most of them offer you the same basic package, details like the price and specific features can vary. You can check out some of the WordPress maintenance services and find the right one for you among them.
Security Plugins
Security plugins are also a great way to keep your website secure. Let’s talk about two plugins to help keep your website safe and secure, WebARX and Security Ninja.
WebARX
WebARX is a website security platform that helps you protect and monitor your websites on a single dashboard. To fight against hackers, it would help if you had a complete overview of your websites and an intelligence system that will notify you when there’s a risk and tell you how to eliminate it.
In less than three minutes, with any technical knowledge, you can connect the WebARX firewall to your sites and have all of them protected. On a single cloud-based dashboard, you will have a complete overview of statistics, firewall and activity logs, as well as monitoring results.
Security Ninja – Secure Firewall & Secure Malware Scanner
Security Ninja- Secure Firewall & Secure Malware Scanner protects your site, and the free version does not make any changes to your website. It runs more than 50 security tests against your site’s current configuration and tells you what you’re doing well and what you need to change for the better.
It also provides you with tips and code snippets to help you make all the changes that need to be made.
How to Make Sure It Doesn’t Happen Again
After fixing the website, you need to make sure it will not happen again. It would be great to solve all the problems on time and continue with your work as soon as possible to prevent possible damage in the future.
If the situation happens again, make sure you have a recovery tool in your arsenal, such as WP Reset. With it, you can easily restore your website and recover all the important files and data. Of course, in the worst-case scenario, you can easily reset your WordPress database without any worries.
Also, make sure you have good hosting too. They are the ones responsible for keeping your website safe and secure on their server.
However, the sad truth is many hosting providers fail to provide the needed security. Many websites can be hacked due to insufficient security measures on the server.
That being said, always do your research and choose a hosting provider with a good reputation and more features to ensure your website stays safe.
What to Do After Your WordPress Website Gets Hacked
You should reset all your passwords, update all plugins and themes, remove all users that shouldn’t be there, and remove unwanted files. It would also be great if you cleaned out your sitemap.
After that, reinstall your plugins and themes and install a security plugin. Furthermore, you can clean out your database if necessary.
Conclusion
It is essential to reduce the vulnerability of your WordPress website, and its security shouldn’t be on the backburner. The chances of a malicious attack are something you have to be prepared for. Fortunately, there are ways to prevent it and fix all the problems that might occur.
Once you have taken all the precautions listed above and followed all the tips and strategies outlined in this article, you can be sure that the chances of your website being hacked are reduced. Even if it does get hacked, with WP Reset and Emergency Recovery Script, you can rest easy knowing you can always restore it to its previous state.
Hopefully, you found this article helpful, and you will manage to secure your website from any unfortunate events. Good luck!
