Discovering your WordPress website has been hacked is stressful, but acting quickly can limit the damage. Follow this emergency action plan to clean and secure your site.
Signs Your WordPress Site Is Hacked
Common signs of a hacked WordPress site include:
- Google or browser warning “Deceptive site ahead”
- Spam links or pages you didn’t create
- Unexpected admin users
- Redirects to other websites
- Slow performance or crashing
- Unexplained changes to content
Step 1: Take Your Site Offline
If your site is serving malware, take it offline immediately to protect your visitors. Use maintenance mode or temporarily change the site password.
Step 2: Change All Passwords
Change your WordPress admin passwords, FTP passwords, hosting account password, and database passwords immediately.
Step 3: Scan for Malware
Use a security plugin like Wordfence or Sucuri to scan your site for malware, backdoors, and malicious code.
Step 4: Remove Suspicious Users
Check your Users list in WordPress admin. Delete any unknown admin users created by the attacker.
Step 5: Check for Backdoors
Hackers often leave backdoor files. Look for suspicious files in wp-content/uploads and unknown files in your theme and plugin folders.
Step 6: Update Everything
Update WordPress core, all themes, and all plugins to the latest versions. Many hacks exploit outdated software.
Step 7: Restore from a Clean Backup
If you have a backup from before the hack, restoring it is the fastest and most reliable way to get a clean site.
Step 8: Harden Your Security
Prevent future attacks with strong passwords, two-factor authentication, limited login attempts, and a web application firewall.
Need Professional Cleanup?
If your site is badly compromised, contact Finggu Infotech for professional WordPress malware removal and hacked website recovery in Mumbai.