Getting your website hacked can be a big deal and it can be fairly complex to clean it up. If you are unfortunate enough to be the victim of a website hack, here are a few immediate steps that you should take once you discover that you’ve been hacked.
1. Stay calm
First of all, stay calm. You can recover. Everything will be OK.
2. Call in your support team (aka Brooktown!)
You need someone with strong technical expertise as well as someone who is familiar with your site and its configuration. This can include your web developer and/or your hosting provider. Many hosting providers will not do the actual work of cleaning your website. But they can provide invaluable assistance or may have other customers that are experiencing the same issue.
3. Scan your local computers for viruses and malware
You will want to scan your local computer(s) with your anti-virus software to make sure they aren’t infected with malware, spyware, Trojans, etc. Be sure your anti-virus software is up-to-date before using it to scan your computer.
4. Change all of your passwords
All of them and DON’T USE THE SAME PASSWORD IN MORE THAN ONE PLACE!
Make sure your new passwords are long and complex. Use a password generator if necessary, but do it!
Concluding thoughts:
Getting your website hacked is no fun. But you are able to recover from it. So stay calm and call in the right support team to get it fixed and running again. While we’ve just skimmed the surface of the process needed to clean the site, having the right support team in place can make a big difference.