There are few problems more detrimental to a growing online organization than a hacked website. A hacked website can lead to mistrust in the organization, as well as continuing problems for the company in terms of running their business. Therefore, it’s imperative to understand how to find hacked site content and remove the malicious material within a consolidated timeframe in order to mitigate the problem and move forward as a business. In this blog, we’ll look at three tips for diagnosing site hacks.
Companies should begin their search for hacked content on their site by reviewing their Google directories. To do this, business owners can simply type “Site: mysite.com” into Google. Google will then list all the directories and URLs linked under the company’s name. Site owners might also consider setting up Google Alerts to notify them of any changes to their website. Within Google Alerts, there are options to highlight terms that are often chosen by spammers, in order to quickly identify suspicious site behaviour.
Within the search queries section of the Webmaster tools available through Google, site owners can review searches that have returned URLs from their site. Owners should review the query list for any subject that isn’t related to their site, as this could be an indication that their site has been hacked.
Google will always notify the webmaster when their site has potentially been compromised. But many site owners check their Google Webmaster Message Center too infrequently. And so it’s imperative that site owners set-up email forwarding on their account to ensure that any Google messages makes it through to their personal email, thereby reducing the potential response time and lessening the damage caused by the site hack.
There are steps site owners can take to help protect against site hacks in future. Firstly, it’s imperative to keep site software up-to-date. Secondly, site owners should see if their management software offers security announcements, in order to ensure they have the latest updates. And finally, the host of the site should be chosen based on the company’s reputation. Site owners can reduce attacks on their online business by working with the leading firms for top level hosting and management.
Successful website threat mitigation can be challenging in an environment where new problems are arising daily. But, by aligning themselves with trusted organizations and staying proactive on the latest site security tools, owners can ensure their site remains online and continues to meet customer needs in the long-term.
