Cyber criminals target both small and large legitimate websites with malware. Poorly protected websites are their preferred target, as it is easier to infect such websites. There are numerous methods used to infect websites. They upload malware through phishing, visiting malicious websites, backdoors, manipulation of source code, disguised plugins, and drive-by downloads.
Why do cyber criminals infect websites
Cyber criminals infect websites:
- to deface and vandalize webpages
- for spam campaigns
- for phishing mail campaigns
- to serve malware such as Trojans and spyware
- to conduct Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks
How to confirm if your website has malware
An infected website displays some obvious symptoms such as:
- Your website is defaced/ vandalized by the cyber criminal/hacker
- Google displays warnings about your website
- Your hosting provider has disabled your website
- Web browsers have blacklisted your website
- Your website loading speed had slowed drastically
- Your website is sending emails on its own
- Your website visitors are being redirected to illegitimate/questionable/inappropriate websites
- You observe suspicious files, folders, and code on your website
However, sophisticated infections do not display easily visible symptoms. They are quite difficult to detect, as the perpetrators will want to remain undetected for as long as possible to continue carrying out their nefarious activities. To detect malware there are numerous tools available. The reputed tools are Google’s Google Safe Browsing Site Status diagnostic tool and Comodo cWatch Web Security Solution with
Google has implemented a strong Safe Browsing technology that continuously examines URLs for malicious content. Both big and small legitimate websites, as well as gaming websites, and gambling websites are targeted and infected with malware and they get compromised. Google maintains a database of compromised websites. You can use Google’s diagnostic tool to find malware on your website.
The Comodo cWatch Web Security Solution with website malware scanner is another robust Website Malware Removal tool that scans the website for the whole gamut of malicious content – it checks for malware such as worms, backdoors, trojans, heuristic viruses, and phishing, suspicious activity, suspicious code, suspicious connections, and suspicious iframes. It also scans for blacklisting, drive-by-downloads and malware downloads. The Comodo cWatch tool provides a report of the malware on your website.
How To Remove Malware on Your Website
If the tools have confirmed the presence of malware, then as the first step you must change all passwords associated with the website. Follow a strong password policy. If you can handle code then you can search for malware on the website. Typically, cyber criminals target .php files, .htaccess files, and media files and insert malicious links in base64 encoded format. Inspect these files for any unauthorized inserted code. However, it is best recommended to utilize a tool such as cWatch Website Malware Removal tool to search for and remove malware. Experts at cWatch will thoroughly examine your website and remove all malware from your website.
However, website protection does not end with just website malware removal, it is recommended to utilize support given by experts who constantly monitor and protect the website.
An infected website loses reputation, trust, visitors, customers and hence business. It is important to maintain the reputation of your website. Protect your website with a robust website malware removal and protection tool.