WEBSITE VIRUSES

Website malware can be recognized by one or more signs. The most direct hint is if the website visitor receives a warning about your website from his computer's virus check or if there is suspicious activity on the website, such as unexpected login attempts or changes. At the same time, the notification can be more modest than the one that jumps out at you pop-up. Your website may simply be slower than usual, making it harder to recognize a virus. The sooner a virus attacking a website can be found, the easier and faster it is to restore the website's security.  

Below we list some signs that your website is the victim of an attack:

1. Your web browser or firewall displays a warning
2. Content that you have not put there yourself will appear on the homepage
3. Suspicious new users
4. Your emails will go to the customer's spam
5. A lot of fake comments suddenly appear under the posts
6. Your website redirects visitors to a foreign page
7. You can no longer access your own website
8. No more inquiries or sales from the website

Before making any changes to the website, even removing malware, you should definitely back up the website. A regular backup copy of the website is the basis of good website management. In the case of an unupdated website, the security of the website is at greater risk, so all updates (plugins, themes, etc.) should also be reviewed. 

If you know how, remove the malware and restore the homepage - work fast and hopefully properly. In case problems arise or you want to prevent them instead, contact us and we will help you by removing the virus from the website and, if necessary, with the future security of the website. On request, we also offer elementary maintenance service, so that hacked websites and virus removal are a thing of the past. On a regularly maintained website, security problems occur much less than at all. After restoring the homepage, also check the indexed pages found in Google search, so that there are no pages with hacked content. Then it must be determined that this problem does not recur and the security of the website must be checked and improved. 

In summary, the steps are as follows:

1. Spotting malware on a website
2. Taking down the homepage from the public
3. Damage control
4. Virus detection from website files and database
5. Website backup
6. Removing malware from the website
7. Restoring the home page
8. Checking the security of the website and making it more efficient if necessary

All websites indexed by search engines are under constant automated attack, so it is not just a problem involving large companies. Fortunately, security risks on the website can be easily prevented through various steps. Everything begins website maintenance, which should be done at least once a quarter. 

Various necessary updates on the website (plugins, themes, etc.) must be reviewed every few months. Then it is recommended to update manually one by one, and this is the number one protection of the website. One by one because often, for example, different updates do not fit together and you need to know the correct order of how to carry out maintenance on the website. Before each update, of course, you should make a backup copy of the website to avoid losing the website in case of problems.

Be sure to use a strong password on the website that consists of different characters and numbers. These urgent recommendations are not intended to bully you, but to protect you, because the password I5nz$7ZHF is much more difficult to guess than a password secure password. It is also a good practice to use two-step authentication. If this all seems too complicated, help is just a few clicks away and we'll be happy to help reduce your workload.

The most common homepage attacks are, so to speak, automatic attacks on all web pages indexed by search engines. Vulnerable websites whose security has not been emphasized fall victim to an automated attack. Such websites usually do not have a firewall, updates have not been made and additional security systems have not been installed. An automated attack gives hackers a wide base and the opportunity to quickly find suitable information among a large number of web pages. This saves hackers time that they would otherwise direct to home pages one by one. The information they are looking for varies depending on the website.

1. Promoting and referencing other websites through blog posts
2. Linking to other websites to get traffic to them
3. In the search results keywords hijacking for self promotion
4. Taking access to the website to demand a ransom
5. Finding access to the bank card data of people who have made a purchase on the website. 

In the case of websites with higher traffic, the attack can also be aimed at reaching private information, installing malware or simply disrupting the smooth operation of the website. If malware is already installed on your website, hackers can use your website to spread the virus to subsequent websites or to people who have visited your website. Hackers aim to make profit as easily as possible by using illegal techniques. Websites with security risks are the first target, but fortunately, this is all preventable with regular website maintenance. 

Low-security websites generally haven't gone through basic steps to protect the website, which makes it easy for hackers to gain access to the website through automated attacks. Often times, the owner of a website with low security cannot understand that the website has been hacked until the damage has already been done. If a hacker has access to the website, the further spread of the virus on the website is fast. The spread of malware also depends on how quickly the problem is detected.

Steps to follow to protect your website:

1. A working firewall (Wordfence, Sucuri, Patchstack)
2. Secure password (For example H&1@JkGb54kd not strateeg123)
3. All updates are up to date (WordPress, Modules, Themes)
4. Regular website backups (Updraft plugin)

If you don't fulfill some of these points, your website is easy prey for installing malware. Hackers generally take the easiest way to make their work as fast and efficient as possible.