Whether you manage a gaming blog, an e-commerce platform, or an enterprise-level website you probably want to be able to detect infections when they occur. A hacked website can lead to financial loss, disruption of business operations, and the exposure of confidential information. The key is acting fast once you discover possible compromise.
But how can you tell if your website has been hacked?
In this post, we’ll explore the most common causes of infection, how to monitor your site to avoid bad actors from accessing your website, and how to restore its security and functionality after a hack.
There are several signs that your website may be compromised, some of which might seem minor at first. However, these signs can become serious issues if left unchecked. Let’s break down the most common indicators:
One sign of a compromised website is a sudden drop in organic traffic. This can happen when search engines detect security issues on your website and either deindex or blacklist your website. SEO spam infections are the most common cause of this, targeting explicit keywords that ultimately poison your ranking.
Here are three of the most common and damaging types of malicious injections that hackers use to compromise a website’s traffic:
These injections can be detected with tools such as SiteCheck, SQLmap, Havij, or jSQL. Tools such as SQLmap are also handy in being able to detect possible intrusion points, helping prevent an injection before it occurs. Hackers exploit vulnerabilities in your website’s SQL database to inject malicious code.
If users report being redirected to unfamiliar websites or encountering unexpected pop-ups, this is a clear sign of a compromised site. This usually occurs when malicious code is injected into your website, leading users to harmful sites or displaying unwanted ads. These redirects are often used in phishing attacks to steal sensitive information from your users.
Here are three common methods hackers use to execute redirects or pop-up attacks:
One of the clearest signs that your site is under attack is when browsers like Chrome or antivirus programs display security warnings. These warnings indicate that your site has been flagged as harmful or compromised. Ignoring these warnings can lead to significant traffic and revenue losses, as users will avoid visiting your site.
For example, the following warning is what an Avast AV user would see in the event that they attempt to visit a site that is injected with malware from a blocked domain:
Here are the most common reasons your site may trigger Google Safe Browsing warnings:
If you’d like to see a preview of each warning, go to chrome://interstitials/ in your Chrome browser to see a full list of warning interstitials for your specific version.
Bad actors can alter your site’s content, inject malicious code, or create new admin users. If you notice blog posts, products, or pages that you or your team did not create, your website has likely been breached. Regularly reviewing your site’s CMS for unauthorized changes can help you catch these signs early.
Here are three common ways hackers make unapproved changes to compromised websites:
If your web host sends warnings or suspends your account, this is a serious red flag. Hosting providers monitor their networks for abnormal activity, so it’s important to act on these notifications quickly to prevent further damage.
Common reasons hosting providers may suspend your account due to hacking:
To further protect your website from security risks, Sucuri offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to keep your site secure. Here’s how Sucuri can safeguard your website from the most common threats:
Incorporating the use of website scanners to monitor both the front and back end is a security precaution every site owner should take. Front-end scanners are like a surveillance system monitoring the perimeter of your home. Server-side scanners, on the other hand, have perspective of the entire house and its contents, allowing them to identify what’s being moved around more efficiently.
For front-end scans, Sucuri offers a free remote scanner, as well as a plugin for WordPress sites. These scans will be able to determine if any known malicious content is displaying on the website. Paid plans have the option of enabling a back end scanner. Check out our configuration guide to learn how to set up our server-side scanning. This should remain actively scanning every 24 hours on the back-end with low resource usage, monitoring for changes to your site files.
Here’s an example of what the SiteCheck external scanner results will look like when injected malware is detected:
And via server-side scanning:
Sucuri provides malware detection and removal as a core component of our website antivirus product line. Our remediation and research teams work tirelessly to identify new malware threats, samples, and campaigns to stay on top of the latest threats. Beyond that, we’re constantly monitoring to identify and virtually patch vulnerabilities with our website firewall as soon as possible, minimizing the risk of downtime and further damage to your site.
Sucuri’s WAF is a crucial layer of defense against attacks like SQL injections, cross-site scripting, and DDoS. Since it operates in the cloud, the WAF doesn’t impact your site’s performance while providing real-time protection.
It includes virtual patching and hardening to safeguard your site even when security patches cannot be immediately applied. The WAF helps block DDoS attacks through a global Anycast network and an intrusion prevention system, ensuring minimal downtime and optimal performance. Sensitive pages can be further protected with features such as CAPTCHA, two-factor authentication (2FA), or IP allowlisting, which restrict access to authorized users. Application profiling and signature detection are employed to analyze traffic and block malicious requests that do not align with your web application’s profile.
Sucuri provides expert support available to chat 24/7, ensuring that any issues are resolved quickly to minimize downtime and protect your business.
While Sucuri offers robust protection, website owners should still follow these best practices to enhance their security and practice defence-in-depth:
For more information and steps to secure a site that has already been compromised, refer to our definitive guide on how to secure your website.
With Sucuri’s comprehensive platform and team of experts, you can further protect your website from malware, DDoS attacks, and other threats, ensuring your online presence remains secure.