What To Do If Your WordPress Website Is Hacked: A Step-By-Step Guide

Introduction

Discovering that your WordPress website has been hacked can be alarming. Hackers may compromise your data, inject malware, or deface your site, harming your credibility and SEO rankings. This step-by-step guide will help you take immediate action to regain control and secure your site against future attacks.

Step 1: Identify the Hack

Signs Your Site is Hacked:

1. Unusual Content: Defaced pages or unfamiliar links.
2. Login Issues: Unable to access the WordPress dashboard.
3. Security Warnings: Notifications from Google Safe Browsing or your hosting provider.
4. Website Redirection: Visitors are redirected to spammy or malicious sites.
5. Spike in Traffic: Sudden unexplained increases, often from suspicious IP addresses.
6. Slow Performance: Your site becomes sluggish without any known changes.

Tools to Confirm a Hack:

• Google Search Console: Check for security warnings.
• Sucuri SiteCheck: Scan your site for malware.
• Wordfence Security Plugin: Analyze hacked files and detect malicious activity.

Step 2: Take Your Website Offline

Prevent further damage by temporarily disabling your site.

How to Take Your Site Offline:

1. Use a maintenance mode plugin, such as SeedProd or WP Maintenance Mode.
2. Redirect visitors to a custom maintenance page explaining the downtime.

Alternatively, deactivate your site via your hosting control panel:

• Access cPanel or your hosting dashboard.
• Rename your site’s root folder to temporarily disable access.

Step 3: Reset Passwords and User Accounts

Change all credentials associated with your site immediately.

Reset the Following:

1. WordPress Admin Password:
   • Go to the login page and click “Lost your password?”
   • Use your email to reset the password.
2. FTP Credentials:
   • Update passwords through your hosting account.
3. Database Passwords:
   • Update in the phpMyAdmin interface and modify the wp-config.php file.
4. Email Accounts:
   • Reset associated email passwords to prevent unauthorized access.

Step 4: Scan for Malware

Use Security Plugins to Scan:

1. Wordfence Security: Comprehensive malware detection.
2. Sucuri Security: Free and paid options for scanning.
3. MalCare Security: Automatic scanning and malware removal.

Run a full-site scan and identify malicious files.

Step 5: Restore Your Website from a Backup

If your backups are clean and recent, restoring your site is the quickest way to recover.

Steps to Restore:

1. Identify a Clean Backup: Locate a backup from before the hack.
2. Use Backup Plugins: Restore your site using plugins like UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy.
3. Verify the Backup: Ensure there are no vulnerabilities in the restored version.

If no clean backup exists, proceed with manual cleaning.

Step 6: Remove Malware Manually

Steps:

1. Access Files via FTP or cPanel:
   • Use an FTP client like FileZilla or your hosting file manager.
2. Identify Malicious Files:
   • Look for files with unfamiliar names or recent modifications.
   • Compare files to a fresh WordPress installation from WordPress.org.
3. Delete Infected Files:
   • Remove any files injected with malicious code.
4. Clean the Database:
   • Use phpMyAdmin to remove malicious scripts from the database.

Step 7: Secure Your Site

Immediate Security Measures:

1. Update WordPress Core, Themes, and Plugins: Ensure all software is up-to-date.
2. Install a Web Application Firewall (WAF): Use services like Cloudflare or Sucuri Firewall.
3. Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Secure user accounts with 2FA plugins like Google Authenticator.
4. Implement Security Headers: Add headers to your .htaccess file to prevent exploits.

Example:

Header set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self';"
Header set X-Frame-Options "DENY"
Header set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"

Step 8: Check and Fix SEO Damage

Actions:

1. Remove Site from Blacklists:
   • Use Google Search Console to request a review after cleaning the site.
2. Submit a Sitemap: Update and resubmit your sitemap.
3. Repair Broken Links: Redirect hacked or removed URLs to valid pages using plugins like Redirection.

Step 9: Monitor Your Website

Prevent future hacks with continuous monitoring.

Recommended Tools:

1. Wordfence Security: Real-time traffic and firewall monitoring.
2. Sucuri Security: Tracks file integrity and login attempts.
3. MalCare Security: Proactive malware protection.

Schedule regular audits and scans to catch vulnerabilities early.

Conclusion

Discovering a hacked WordPress website is stressful, but acting quickly and methodically can minimize damage and restore your site. Follow this step-by-step guide to regain control and secure your site against future attacks. Regular maintenance, backups, and proactive security measures will keep your WordPress site safe and resilient.