WordPress is in use by around 15 million websites around the world. This has been evolved as the most dominant CMS (Content Management System) worldwide. It holds around 60% of the global CMS market. Most prominently used CMS is now WordPress.
But bad news is also here: websites powered by wordpress has been among the top hacker’s popularity list too. It has been revealed that total of 11485 websites has been compromised out of which 78% has been powered by wordpress.
For the cyber criminals it is more about hacking rather than the company size or profit earned by the company. When you are online you are prone to hacking. You need to be clear about some aspects before doing online business or website designing as a website is the face of the company. You cannot compromise with a website’s security as this is the most important part of your business. You can not overlook the problems associated security of website.
Given below are several indications which can show if your wordpress website is compromised.
Website seems to be compromised when
1. You can’t log in
This is your first hint where you cannot login to your wordpress account. This might be the typo error. Try again, if it does not happen, it might be the hacker.
If you are new to wordpress then you might wonder, how anyone can get locked outside his wordpress account. Hackers can do anything to access your site. If one is inclined to the database access, they can go extreme lengths to access your site.
Hackers primarily use automated programs that run numerous password/ username in numerous combinations in trial and error method. Once they get into the system, they make sure that you cannot get in the system to make the situation correct. Or your account will get deleted through them.
2. Slow or unresponsive site
If your site is slow it might be possible that hackers are trying to inject malicious code into your website or trying to enter your site forcibly.
Another possibility is your site might be at the receiving end of denial-of- service attack. Through this technique several hacked computers and servers with fake IP address have been employed on your server which can overload the server and hence it cannot handle too many request load. Any of the above activities can make your website slow, unresponsive or even unavailable.
If you are managing number of websites use pingdom to measure the speed of each of the websites. This is a free online tool which will help in measuring the speed of the website from different locations.
3. You can’t send or receive WordPress emails
Through hacking your websites turned against you and you cannot do anything. If hackers use your website to send large number of spam emails, your email account of wordpress will go through delays. Along with making a site unresponsive or slow, this action will prevent you from sending or receiving any mails as the server has already been overwhelmed with the requests.
4. Your page displays another website’s content
When a client goes to your website, the site temporarily loads and then redirects to some other website. This is the time you should understand that your site has been hacked. This means that your website’s server access has been gained by someone else and in the root directory improper code has been inserted.
5. Google flags your site as insecure
Search engine giant Google warns the visitors from visiting the website it perceives as infected or a threat to other systems security. This means that the probable customers and clients will be discouraged from visiting the website or do business. Users will be informed or warned that interaction with the website will infect their system with malicious software that could steal the information or can otherwise harm their networks or computers. So, even the bloggers and business owners must pay attention to the wordpress security.
6. Your web host takes your site offline
Most of the web hosts will let you know when your site is getting removed from the service. Suppose your website is renewed, which is a protective action but at the same time this hacked website will spread malware to other servers and continue the process of spreading virus and affecting the other website available on the host server.
So, before you move forward hire website design experts who can tell you which CMS to work on and what measures should be taken to make your website safe, secure and free from hackers.