My Site Was Hacked!
Transcript
- 1. HACKED Ten tips on what to do next. MY SITE WAS !
- 2. You wake up one morning, get your coffee, open your browser, and navigate to your website.
- 3. To your horror, your discover that your website is simply not there anymore. Or worse, it's been replaced by a NSFW (not safe for work) page or a crowd of ads for unsavory pharmaceutical products. To your horror, your discover that your website is simply not there anymore. Or worse, it's been replaced by a NSFW (not safe for work) page or a crowd of ads for unsavory pharmaceutical products.
- 4. Even without reading the solemn notification from your browser, you know the grim truth: you've been hacked. Now you're in a panic. How did this happen? Where are your site assets? Will you ever get control back? Oh No!
- 5. STEP 1 Calm down. You can recover from this. You can contact a professional service or fix it yourself. Google even has an that's ready to help you when you are ready. 8-step DIY recovery process
- 6. STEP 2 Let people know you've been hacked. Notify your host, webmaster, and, if you can, your customers. Now either clean up your local PC by running anti-virus/anti-malware software, along with your latest OS update, or, if you have doubts that your machine is truly uninfected, commandeer a PC that you're sure is clean.
- 7. STEP 3 Make sure. Log into your hosting account to make sure you’ve been hacked. Sometimes what you think is a hack is a product of a service outage or maybe even a bad plug-in that you might have installed. Your host will be able to tell you if you were actually hacked and, if so, begin to trace what caused it.
- 8. STEP 4 Backup (or back to the drawing board). In some cases, a good hosting company will have an old backup of your site to serve as a starting point to rebuild your site. You may also have backed up your site locally. If your site is built with WordPress, here is a guide for restoring your site from a backup.
- 9. STEP 5 Worst case scenario: There is no back up. Data is corrupted beyond repair. You need to rebuild. There is one last refuge you need to visit: The Internet Archive may have recorded your site in its 456 billion page directory.
- 10. STEP 6 Find your site snapshot. Go to the last date your website was archived in a site snapshot. It’s tedious, but you will at least see your old data, and be able to copy and paste it into your new site's pages.* * I realize that this process is impractical with large database-driven sites, but for small sites without hundreds of entries, it’s better than nothing, and can be a real life saver.
- 11. STEP 8 Get a secure username and password. Many hackers use "brute force" attacks that look for the easiest method to break into your site’s control panel, often by using the username “admin” and password “password.” If you've failed to change the default settings that came with your hosting setup, you're just inviting the hackers to get you. Use http://passwordsgenerator.net/ to create names and passwords that are harder to crack.
- 12. STEP 9 Don't wait for the next catastrophe to strike.
- 13. Always back up your website on a regular schedule. WordPress site users have a vast library of backup tools to choose from. For the rest of us, logging on via FTP and whacking your content to your local PC is a task that you need to mark on your calendar and stick to.
- 14. STEP 10 Check your users. Delete any unwanted users Delete users that are no longer using your dashboard (guests) Only give others the access they need. For example, a guest blogger on your site should never be given admin status, but give contributor status.
- 15. If this all seems to difficult, then by all means hire a professional, or upgrade your hosting service to include automatic backups, with managed security. You may pay a premium for this service, but it is totally worth the peace of mind.
- 16. 1. http://www.katalystcreativegroup.com/blog/140-5-critical-steps-if-your- website-is-hacked.html 2. http://www.katalystcreativegroup.com/blog/137-how-can-i-protect-my- site.html 3. http://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/tips-tricks/what-to-do-when- your-wordpress-website-has-been-hacked 4. http://www.slideshare.net/michelebutcher/your-site-has-been-hacked- now-what SOURCES
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