Last month I fixed two Joomla websites that had been hacked with malicious content injections. Malicious content injection means the hackers insert javascripts, links, and redirects in your content that take users to known spam or hacker sites, and often you can’t see anything on the site or in the site files.
Both hacked sites were displaying Google’s Malicious Content warning. Needless to say, the Google Malicious Content warning will kill your website traffic and possibly get your site completely blocked and blacklisted.
If you get the Google malicious content warning on your site, you can use Sucuri’s free website scanner to determine if your site has actually been hacked. If the scan reveals that your site is compromised or blacklisted, I recommend buying a Sucuri website monitoring package that fits your need.
If you have a Joomla or WordPress site, there are literally thousands of files that could be infected. It can be almost impossible to find all the hacked files on your site. I have used Sucuri twice to clean up malware on hacked sites, and in both cases, they were fast and effective in cleaning up the hacked files and getting the Google warnings removed.
In fact, the first time I used Sucuri, I bought their 1 year / 1 site service for $89 around 10pm on a Sunday night, and Sucuri had the problem fixed by 8am Monday morning. When I used Sucuri the second time, they were just as fast and efficient.
If you’re thinking $89 is a lot to spend on site monitoring for 1 year, think of how much your time and sanity are worth. I am pretty good at figuring out web site problems, but there is no way I could have found all the infected files on either hacked site. And even if I did know how to fix the problem, there is no way I could clean them up for $89.
What’s more, that $89 covers your site for a whole year. Sucuri will monitor your site for a whole year and fix any hack problems that occur. Consider it the deal of the century.