Category Archives: Website Security

Malware Removal For WordPress

 

Malware…that one single word can be the cause of a huge headache and nightmare for any website owner. Malware Removal should be completed quickly by a competent professional.

Malware can infect any website, 40% of websites on the internet run on WordPress, the WordPress platform is an ideal target for malware infection.

While it’s an established fact that WordPress malware can pose a serious risk to your website security, the fact remains that WordPress malware removal is a job that requires a professional. You need the best experts to get the job done and ensure that your website doesn’t get infected again.

What is malware? And how do you know that your WordPress website has been infected by malware in the first place? We’ll be exploring malware further along with a brief guide on how to remove malware from WordPress websites.

So, let’s get going.

What Is Malware?

First, let’s tackle the biggest question of all: how do you define malware?

In the simplest of terms, malware is any malicious software that can take advantage of your website’s weaknesses. WordPress malware, then, is any malware that’s specifically targeted towards WordPress websites in particular.

WordPress malware has the potential to negatively impact your website’s performance on multiple levels. Whether it’s the website performance, SEO, or user experience, malware can impact all aspects of your website. This means, unless you can remove malware quickly, your website’s performance can seriously get affected.

How can a malware attack affect your WordPress website? Here’s a list of some of the common forms WordPress malware attacks can take:

  • Unauthorized use of server resources as part of a botnet
  • Excessive use of disk space
  • Slowing down of the site
  • Degradation of Google rankings
  • Complete blacklisting on Google

From the above, you can easily understand that any form of malware can impact your WordPress website on multiple fronts. So, it’s best to be on the lookout for any signs of malware infection.

Signs Your WordPress Website Is Malware Inflected

WordPress Security should always be a priority, and constant vigilance is the key to ensuring website optimization. With that end in mind, here’s a few tell-tale signs that your WordPress website has a malware infection.

  • Sudden dips or spikes in website traffic levels
  • Spammy website links in your site content
  • Defacement of the homepage or interior website pages
  • Login problems
  • Unauthorized WordPress user accounts
  • Unknown server files and scripts
  • Unresponsive web pages
  • Unrecognized server log activity
  • Inability to access WordPress emails
  • Unauthorized scheduled tasks
  • Incorrect meta tags or title tags in search results
  • Suspicious pop-up ads
  • Browser warnings
  • Blocked ports
  • Unrecognized website code

If you spot any of these signs on your WordPress website, your WordPress website could have a malware infection. You need to hire a WordPress Expert to remove the malware infection and help prevent future issues.

Steps To Remove Malware From Your WordPress Website

WordPress Malware Removal

In general, removing malware from WordPress websites is a task that’s best left to WordPress security professionals. However, in case you’re technically inclined or are a WordPress expert yourself, you can follow the basic steps as outlined below.  You might not need to do all of these steps.

  • Scan your WordPress site
  • Take complete backups of the entire website and database content
  • Download and examine the files you’ve backed up to ensure that everything is in order
  • Delete all public files
  • Uninstall and reinstall WordPress
  • Reset all permalinks and passwords on your website
  • Make sure you reinstall all the plugins and themes that you previously had in your WordPress installation
  • Restore any necessary files from the backup cache
  • Remove any default admin account
  • Make sure you install security plugins

After the malware removal process is completed, you’ll have to use  Google Webmaster Tools to inform Google that your website clean.

Why It’s Best To Call In A Professional

Malware Removal Professional

The malware removal process isn’t as simple as the above-outlined steps. Unless you are a  WordPress expert, it’s best to hire a professional for the removal and prevention of future malware infections.

Malware removal is not a straightforward process. Although you might have got an impression from the above steps that it’s a simple process, we assure you that’s far from the truth.

When removing malware from your WordPress website, you’ll have to take care to ensure that you look in all of the folders and files of your WordPress website. Otherwise, your website stands a risk of getting infected by malware again.

Secondly, scouring a website for malware removal can result in you deleting or modifying essential system files. This can lead to the loss of critical website code, which will inevitably result in financial loss.

Finally, the most important reason for hiring a WordPress expert is that as a business owner, you need to focus on what you do best: running your business. Taking care of WordPress malware removal is a full-time job in itself. And unless it can get an expert’s undivided attention, malware can very easily creep in. So, it’s best to leave the task to professional WordPress malware removal experts.

Final Words

Big Customer Network can help you maintain a malware-free site. Our WordPress malware removal experts will remove the malware and set up a monitoring program to help prevent future malware infections.

Our experienced malware removal experts can take care of any WordPress website, no matter the size or complexity. You get access to dedicated malware removal services, comprehensive cleanups, and constant support with monitoring

Don’t wait until your website becomes infected with malware. Contact us today if you need malware removal or are ready to be proactive and invest in a malware monitoring program.

12 Reasons to Take Website Security Seriously

Website Security

 

Right now your website is at risk of a hack if your website security plan isn’t solid. Hackers come in all shapes and sizes, but they are certainly coming…to the tune of 50,000 website hacks per day. Scary? Definitely. Avoidable? For sure. Cybercriminals are on a mission to steal data and they do so in many different ways. While we often think of cybercrime in terms of large corporations like Equifax, the reality is that small businesses are at serious risk.

As a small business owner, website security is likely low on your priority list. But what if you knew that 43 percent of cyberattacks target small businesses? Would that encourage you to take a closer look? From protecting your clients and customers to protecting yourself and your employees, website security is something that needs to be top-of-mind in 2020 and beyond.

Those business owners who fail to recognize the significance of keeping their website safe will find themselves extremely vulnerable to the depths of threats online. Today, we will take some time to highlight a few of the most prominent reasons that website security must be taken seriously.

Secure Your Site Now

Predictions point out that there will be about 200 billion connected devices this year. And while that figure is really cool, the reality is that high risk comes with connectivity. Making sure that your website is secure is imperative in this day and age. From spam to viruses to malware to domain registration, internet threats are abundant and ever-changing.

It’s easy to maintain an “it won’t happen to me” attitude. Do you know anyone personally who has suffered from a cyberattack? Has your personal information been compromised in any fashion? Most business owners think that they are too small or too insignificant to get noticed by hackers. But when more than 4 in 10 cyber attacks target small businesses, it’s time to wake up and take action.

The following are some of the leading reasons to take website security seriously:

  1. Your customers are at risk
  2. Once your business reputation is tainted, it is extremely difficult to rebuild trust
  3. Many cyber attacks hit profits so hard that there is no coming back
  4. Website protection is far cheaper than cleaning up after a breach
  5. Google looks to see HTTPS for rankings purposes
  6. You may get blacklisted if suspicious links are placed on your site
  7. SSL certificates are now something that website visitors look for when it comes to trusting a site
  8. Your employees are at risk
  9. Protect your physical assets
  10. Prevent the loss of sales with tons of downtime during a hack
  11. Get a leg up on your competition who is failing to properly secure their site
  12. Gain peace of mind knowing that you, your customers, and your business is protected

Cybercrime is a profitable business, as indicated by its popularity over the last several years. Your company is your baby and you wouldn’t put your baby in a car seat without properly buckling them in. There are countless measures that can be taken to make your site more secure and it is important to take swift action.

At Big Customer Network, we understand the importance of powerful website security. As such, we partner with our clients to ensure that their website and their data is secured. Plus, we create a custom disaster recovery plan to safeguard our clients when an unlikely hack occurs.

Are you ready to secure your site and protect your company? Contact us today to learn more!