You can tell if your WordPress site has been hacked or otherwise compromised by looking for a few common signs.
In this article, we’ll discuss some of the most typical indicators that your WordPress site has been hacked and what you can do to fix it.
- Sudden Drop in Website Traffic.
Even if Google Analytics is correctly configured, a sudden drop in traffic may indicate that your WordPress site has been hacked if you check your analytics reports. A sudden decrease in traffic may be brought on by a number of factors. For instance, malware on your website might send unregistered users to spam websites. The fact that Google’s safe browsing tool is giving users warnings about your website may also be a contributing factor in the sudden drop in traffic. Use Google’s safe browsing tool to check your website and view your safety report.
2. Bad Links Added to Your Website
One of the most typical indicators of a WordPress hack is data injection. Hackers install a backdoor on your WordPress website, giving them access to edit your WordPress files and database. This data was injected into your website through a backdoor, which you must identify and close.
3. Your website’s home page has been vandalized.
To let you know that your website has been hacked, some hackers might deface it. Such hackers typically replace your homepage with their own message. Some might even attempt to extort cash from website owners.
4. WordPress user accounts that seem suspicious.
Spam user accounts are simply common spam that you can delete if your site allows for user registration and you don’t use any anti-spam measures.
However, your site is probably compromised if you don’t recall allowing user registration but you continue to see new user accounts in WordPress.
Typically, the suspect account will have the administrator user role, and there may be circumstances in which you are unable to delete it from your WordPress admin area.
5. Your Website is Often Slow or Unresponsive.
DDoS or random denial of service attacks may be launched against any website on the internet. They may be bombarding your server with requests unnecessarily at times, but at other times, they may be actively attempting to access your website. Any such activity will cause your website to load slowly, become unavailable, and stop working.
6. Inability to send or receive emails using WordPress.
Spam is frequently sent from servers that have been hacked. Most WordPress hosting providers include free email accounts as part of your hosting. Many WordPress site owners send emails using the mail servers of their host.
7. Randomly redirecting users to unknown websites.
Another crucial indication that your website may have been compromised is if visitors are being redirected to an unidentified website. Visitors who type the website’s address into their browser to access it directly might not be redirected. Backdoors or malware that has been installed on your website are frequently to blame for these kinds of hacks.
Protecting and repairing your hacked WordPress site
Cleaning up a hacked WordPress site can be incredibly painful and difficult. That’s why we are here to help clean your website.
It comes with 24/7 website monitoring and a powerful web application firewall, which blocks attacks before they reach your website. More importantly, we clean your website if it ever gets hacked.
If you are interested in finding out more cyber attacks and ways to protect your business or you are looking to take on an IT provider, contact us here. We currently offer a free IT consultation, so don’t forget to fill out our IT Workplace Assessment, so we can come back to you with our recommendations.