Has Your WordPress Website Been Hacked? – Read This Now!
It's a good question! Has your WordPress website been hacked? You may suspect it, but how do you know? Must you pay for a security assessment? Well, you can, but first, I'd use a free tool to check out your site.
That way, if it says your website is compromised, you know then that you absolutely need to take action.
If it says it's clear, it probably is. No guarantees, but it's a good sign.
So what tool should you use?
Recommended Website Scanner
The one I recommend to my clients to use initially is Sucuri's site scanner. It's quick and it's free.
Is it as thorough as a full site audit by a security specialist? No, but you may as well run it first.
Here it is:
To use it, click on the link, then type in the URL (web address) of your website into the box. In a few moments, you'll get back the result.
This will show you whether the scanner has detected any malware on your site. But it will also whether your site is blacklisted by any search engines.
What To Do If It's Clear
If the scanner shows it's clear, then unless you strongly suspect it's infected, you can rest easy.
What To Do If There is Malware
If hackers have infected your site with malware, my first advice is to restore from your last known good backup. Then I'd see about hardening the security around your site. I would recommend:
- Installing the WordFence security plugin with its firewall.
- Keeping your WordPress version, your theme and all your plugins updated to the latest level
- Using hard to guess passwords for your WordPress admin user.
- Changing the username of your admin user from 'admin'.
If you don't have a robust backup process in place, then get one as a matter of urgency. Having a viable set of backups can mean the difference between a little inconvenience and having no website at all. This has happened to people I know - they lost everything.
Summary
If you worry about your website and hacking, run the free Sucuri scanner. If you have any questions after doing this, contact me for a chat: https://www.wptrainingnow.com/blog/contact/
