10 early signs of website hacking

Are you being attacked by a website hackertyper?

How safe do you think your webpage is? Having your site hacked sounds personal. After all, you poured hours into it, making sure that it’ll grow. But hackers don’t care how much work or time has been put into building a website, all they care about is fulfilling their needs. When your site has been hacked, a lot of things are compromised, from your company’s and customers' data to the loss of customers. That’s why, as a webpage owner, it is important to be as quick as possible to observe changes. Early signs of  a webpage breach must be noticed because studies have shown that hackers are present every 39 seconds, affecting online businesses faster. To avoid completely losing your site, here are some early signs you should be aware of when your page has been hacked.

1. Visitors notice a red alert box

When entering a page, customers (or you) might notice a red box alerting them that the webpage contains malware. This warning sign is often a caution that your page has been attacked by hackers. Google and other browsers often show this sign once a page has been compromised. This means you have also been blacklisted by Google’s Safe Browsing. When your website is included in Google's list, it means that it contains malicious content or threats that could be dangerous to users.

2. Your host provider blocks your website

Hosting companies often check their servers to ensure the safety of their users. When you suddenly find you have been blocked by your host provider, there could be malware or malicious code present. The sudden block of your page is done to protect other web pages on their server. If this happens, you have to immediately solve the problem. Hosting companies will immediately return your web site once the threat is removed.

3. Your website is redirected

Another sign that someone has entered and hacked your site is when your customers are redirected to another page. These web pages can either be a compromised site, your competitors’ site, or even redirected back to the search engine. When this happens, webpage owners often lose their traffic.

4. Your site takes longer to load

When a webpage takes time to load, there could be many factors causing it; and a virus might be the cause. For you to be sure that it wasn't caused by malicious code, you can do a scan. Most pages that viruses target are logins or sign-ups and checkouts.

5. Your domain sends spam

Spam messages are annoying. But there are viruses out there that could compromise your web page and send out spam email messages to your clients. If you begin receiving complaints from your customers, or your hosting provider warns you of spamming, it could mean that your website has been hacked.

6. Loss of website traffic

When browsers warn users or your customers that a webpage contains malware, people will not proceed to enter it. This can, therefore, affect your traffic. There could be other reasons why your traffic suddenly changes, but often this is because customers or users avoid entering a page due to the browsers’ warning.

7. Dropped Google search ranking

Aside from losing your hard-gained traffic to build your business, another cause of your drop in search engine ranking can be because hacking has occurred. Some cybercriminals insert malicious codes to drop your search ranking on Google or other search engines.

8. Website design contains different content

Your website design content is often one part where cybercriminals or hackers attack, like replacing your content with unwanted messages. Some changes can be small or go unnoticed, like changes in file sizes or dates. Sometimes you’ll discover pages that are unfamiliar. These pages are a way for hackers to either steal your traffic or redirect your customers to other pages. This could affect your trustworthiness and credibility resulting in a loss of customers.

9. Some functions are not working

Webpage owners are aware of the changes they make to their site. Therefore, if there are some functions on your page that are not working correctly, it means that an error has been encountered. Be quick to find out what the error is. Sometimes it could be a threat inserted into your website’s code.

10. Unwanted ads or pop-ups on your site

Upon entering your site, spam ads appear inviting you to click - these infected ads are malware injected by hackers. Some hackers can even earn money from these unwanted ads.

Web Hosting Server Overload

A server can only handle a significant amount of traffic coming into your website. An excess of traffic can cause a performance issue. If this happens, your hosting company will warn you about these changes. An increase in traffic could be two things. It could be that real visitors are entering your page, or that a hacker has entered a malicious code. This cybercriminal's purpose is to either increase the search engine ranking of their site or it could be another reason. Now that you are aware of some warning signs that your webpage might be in trouble, you must respond quickly to these threats. Solving cyberattacks is expensive so the earlier you solve the problem, the better. Here are things you can do when your website has been hacked by a hackertyper. • Scan your site for the possibility of malware or viruses.

• If a virus or malware is detected, immediately disable access to your site.

• Scan your site to determine the infected file and solve the issue.

• After fixing your page, install software or an app that will protect you from future hackers and ensure that your site is secured with SSL encryption. Always be alert to any changes that happen to your website, and secure it as early as you can to avoid such cybercrimes happening. Remember, no page is too small for hackers! Author: John Ocampos, Founder of SEO-Guru, Director of Tech Hacker, Strategic SEO Influencer, Marketing Manager of Softvire Australia and New Zealand.