WP Website Hacked: Reasons and Solution
September 25, 2020
Lots of sites are hacked every day, leading to anxiety and loss of profits. This post will help you identify the reasons behind a hacked site and how to make it more protected.
If your website gets hacked, it’s tempting to panic. Lots of sites are hacked every day, leading to anxiety and loss of profits. Large websites, regular websites, even small fledgling sites—all are hacked without discrimination.
This post will help you identify the reasons behind a hacked site and how to make it more protected. These tips will help to prevent your website from being hacked in the future.
Why Would a Hacker Hack Your Website?
This is a frequent question you may ask when your nastiest nightmare starts coming true. It’s tough not to feel targeted while an anonymous character has hacked into your site, causing turmoil and chaos.
Hackers usually have an underlying motive that has nothing to do with the content of your site. They may have several reasons for hacking your site. Some of them are stated below.
1. A Hacker’s Motivation
So, what is the reason behind a hacker targeting your website? Actually, hackers aim to access your website’s software to stay up and operate. By hacking into this software, they steal sensitive client data or even take your website’s admin power.
2. SEO Spam
Another reason for a hacker to attack your website is to get the benefits of SEO spam. SEO ( search engine optimization) is what the search engine uses to index or rank your website.
Hackers know the benefits of SEO, and they apply it to their advantage. They frequently redirect traffic from your site, funneling it directly to theirs, passing entirely over yours.
3. Malware Injections
Lots of hackers attack your website intending to infect it with malware. Malware is small bits of code used to create malicious modification on your site. Even once all of the malware is removed, hackers could have left a backdoor behind. The hacker can utilize that backdoor to reinfect your WordPress site with malware.
4. Ransomware
Hackers might desire to attack your site to hold it casually. Ransomware refers to when the hacker takes over your site for a ransom. He won’t release it back unless you give them a hefty payment.
5. The Graffiti of the Internet
Some hackers attack your website just for a little fun. These are usually done by kids or young adults just starting to play around by their hacking skills. They hack websites as a way to practice and develop their skills.
5 Tips to Secure Your WordPress Website
Knowing how hazardous it can be if your WordPress website is hacked can be the catalyst you require to start implementing your website security strategy. Here are 5 tips to get you started.
1. Update Everything
Updates aren’t always just for some cool latest features and fixing bugs. Updating plugins and software include severe security patches for recognized vulnerabilities. Maintain your site protected and updated.
2. Install Software From Trusted Sources
Only install the software you obtain from WordPress.org, famous commercial repositories, or straight from trustworthy developers. Try to stay away from “nulled” versions of commercial plugins as they can have malicious code. It doesn’t matter how firmly you lock down your website if you are installing malware yourself.
3. Remove Inactive Users
Inactive users on your WordPress website may increase your attack surface. Users, especially Admins and others who can modify the content, are perhaps one of the weakest points of a website as, unfortunately, nearly all users likely to prefer weak passwords.
If you require to keep inactive users in your database, modify their position to ‘Subscriber’ to limit their actions.
4. Set up a Firewall
Security software or plugin will allow you to build up a firewall for your WordPress site. This will include an additional obstacle for hackers and decrease the chances of hacks and attacks on your website.
5. Install a Security Plugin
You can install a security plugin on your website. It will alert you of any suspicious movement. This may include illegal logins or the accumulation of files that shouldn’t be present.
Having a website hacked is definitely an unpleasant incident. It means your website is no longer available for users, which might impact on your business. It also leads you to take quick action, which may crash on your other activities.
It is absolutely normal to be unsure of why a hacker chooses to attack your site. Though hackers don’t target you personally, they still have other motivations to assault your site. Whatever the reason is, their drive boils down to money. The good news is, With the right security measure, you can prevent the majority of WP website hacks.
Stay safe!
Hire WordPress Developers
We provide 24/7 services and adhere to the privacy policy that ensures 100% confidentiality.
$25/hr
Get Started Now