Every day someone is getting hacked. Why? Who knows. It could be for malicious intentions or for someone’s personal fun. The world of hacking contains a whole community of its own that it is hard to figure out a reason why such things happen. However, for the regular website owner, how do you know when you have been hacked. In this article, I will cover signs that your website has been hacked.
Signs That Your Website Has Been Hacked
PWNED
Being pwned is a way for hackers to tagged or vandalize your site with a message saying who hacked you, and that they successfully did so. Often it is a simple page they have put in place of your usual index.html or index.php file so your visitors will see only their message.
DDOS
A DDoS is a distribute denial of service attack. This is where the hacker targets a server and sends as much data to overload the system. This is temporary, but a nuisance as often sites slow down to a trickle until they are completely down.
Brute Force Login Attack
This is where the hacker tries to use as many combinations as possible in a short period to gain access to a website. If the user has a password that is simple, then the hacker can get in and choose to leave their own mark on the website. In some minor cases, the hacker just changes the password.
Code Injection
A code injection is usually something that happens with out of date programs or unsecured programs. It allows the hacker to install malware on a website that could possibly be detrimental to website visitors if they click on the link or malware. Often these are links or even links from pop-ups.
The issue with this is that a lot of times the link or pop-up at a first glance seems to be from a trusted source. The best thing to do is to exit the site and try to inform the website owner on one of their social networks. Some of the code injections are simple and only require updating a plugin, a theme, a specific script, or the overall program that the site operates with. Others may require going into the database and removing the infected tables or possibly even having the server scanned. Please do note that some cases of code injections do not turn up positive for an infected website, so it is necessary to carefully look into all files for suspicious code.
Visible signs
Sometimes your Internet Provider may produce messages like the following if your site is unsafe to surf.
Sometimes your listing might look strange on the search engines with a title that is different from your site and a different description.
The best methods to combat against hacking is to keep your server, and website’s software and programs up to date. It would also not hurt to use extra methods of hardening security.
Has your site ever been hacked? What did you do to prevent your site being hacked again?
What a nasty feeling when your website has been hacked. Recently my ISP’s FTP account server was attacked by a hacker and all usernames and passwords were comprimised.
My website was hacked as a consequence of this felony. Time and money lost.
I agree with you Nile, all the effort you put in protecting your website will pay in the form of peace of mind in the future.
Hi Nile,
I can’t see anything to indicate my site has been hacked although my sales have just stopped. Have checked the hop links and they are still fine. Very strange.
Pretty component to content. I just stumbled upon your blog and in accession capital to say that I get in fact enjoyed account your weblog posts. Anyway I’ll be subscribing to your augment and even I success you get entry to persistently quickly.
I find that there are clear ways you can tell when you have been hacked, especially on social media, when a business has hacked you and is spewing their advertisements through your blog or social media. The rest of this information was new to me. I will definitely be on the lookout for code injections.
Hi Nile,
First of all, I want to say, nice new look! I was surprised when I came to your blog to see the changes. Looks great!
This is a very informative post. I’ve had attempted hacks, but fortunately the plugins I have installed have prevented any damage. I don’t understand why people hack or create viruses…who knows? It’s important that bloggers are aware there are possible threats so they can take the proper measures to prevent costly damage. I’ve always followed Kimberly’s updates and that has helped a lot too.
Raena Lynn
Hi Raena! Thanks… this is just the beginning of some of the new changes to the site. It has been a long project to brainstorm and then put together.
The issue is that even though we do put some preventative measures…someone will always find a way in. We just need to keep on top of the game as much as possible.
Hi Nile! I had no idea what happens when a hacker gets in so this was very helpful. I did find some codes on my blog ( I took your advice and looked) I had one long one on my “work with chery page” and then a few at the end of a few of my posts to. Once I deleted these the ads disappeared. . I am not sure how they got there? Is this some form of hacking? Thanks for your advice Nile, I am learning so much from visiting your blog Oh and Love the New Look.. Chery 🙂
Nice info
i will protect my website from hacked signs
thank you
Thank you for the fantastic and most generous content. once again you over deliver for your readers.Other indicators your site has been hacked can include:
1) Your website loads significantly slower than usual.
2) Your passwords to log into your site’s admin panel or FTP stop working.
3) Significant changes in traffic.
4) Influx of spam emails.
Pretty sure mine has not been hacked. Although I do take much greater care now days as it is a big income source for me. Keep up the great Content! Hope you never get hacked!
hii Nile very informative post about the sign of hacking many people faces this problem commonly and hackers they only want one mistake from you and they do not miss the opportunity. so be careful with your passwords and bank accounts.
🙂
This is one of the questions I have always had in the back of my mind and you brought me some ease. With all the garbage out there it is hard to police you website 110%. Thank you Nile for the help:)
Yes these are the real sign that make sure that our website has been hacked. Thanks for sharing this.
Hey Nile,
After reading about brute force before in this blog of yours, I made my sites secure so that it can’t be attack. It really helped me to be more conscious on my site. But the thing is, being conscious is not enough. I need to know exactly the details about hacking before it’s too late. And after looking in the net for signs and information, I was led to this post of yours. Indeed, this post really helps a lot. Thanks for this.
Yes sometimes we are hacked but we don’t know this accident. Hackers are doing their work behind us from our account. Thanks for sharing these nice tips for getting noticed when we will get hacked by some hackers.
Thank you for sharing this Nile. I hope it will not happen to my 🙁 . This would i think crash my world.
hacking is becoming more and more prominent now-a-days. To be on a safer side, you should develop a habit of having a safe password and changing it more frequently. Also, never share the password in any of your social accounts as it might raise the probability of hacking.
Thank you for informative post.Every site owner know this tips and tricks .If any one can not understand what happen at his /her site he/she might to read this post .Again thank.
These are great tips and the most powerful tricks. Thanks for sharing your views,Really helpful…!
thanks Nile!
This is the part of the Internet that I like the least! There’s always some losers looking to make
things tough on everybody else!
But at least now I have an idea should I ever encounter any
of messages.
Of course I’ll let pro’s such as yourself handle it, but at least now thanks to your post,
won’t be in the dark quite as much!
Thanks for sharing!
Great article, so many people know their sites can be hacked but don’t always know the signs to look out for if they have been hacked. Some of them aren’t that obvious at all.