Archived topic
HELP! Website is Hacked or has a Virus!
5 replies · Started by Zhorra on August 11, 2018
Hi,
I'm really stressing out over this virus or hack that has taken over our website. My computer's malware filter keeps popping up notifications of attempts to infect or hack my computer whenever I go to this website or try to login through the dashboard or click on any links.
I just spoke with a Hosting Rep from GoDaddy and he told me that it would cost $85 per year to activate a cleaning and notification service. There is currently no SSL certificate activated on this website.
Does anyone have any recommendations on what to do to help clean this up or prevent this from happening again?
I'm really worried about having to break the bad news to the owner of this website :(
Hi there,
Sorry to hear that! Definitely sucks.
I would consider moving to a different host.
Many hosts will clean up/scan hacked websites for you, as having a hacked site on a shared server puts all the other sites on the server at risk of being hacked as well (at least that's my understanding).
You could look into a service like Sucuri, but it's likely more expensive than what GoDaddy is quoting you.
Once the hack is cleaned up, you need to make sure you change all of the passwords (WordPress, FTP, Database).
If you do a search for "WordPress clean up hacked website", you should find quite a few resources which might be helpful.
Thank you!
This website is not owned by me. I am a Volunteer for this organization to help update their website.
So the decision to move the website is not up to me.
Also, if I understand correctly. It is not good to activate a Childtheme for GeneratePress, correct?
It's definitely not a bad thing to do. I explain it a bit here: https://docs.generatepress.com/article/using-child-theme/
Using a child theme with GeneratePress is the same as using one with any other theme :)
Thank you for explaining child themes for me!
I recall that Flywheel recommends not to use Child Themes, no?
If it were my site, I would totally pull the trigger on transferring hosting. But alas, I am just a simple Volunteer, I'm still trying to clean up the Malware from the WP site :(
Not sure why they'd recommend that. A child theme is just a layer on top of the parent theme that you can edit.
Once the hack is cleaned up, you can install a plugin like iThemes Security to secure things a bit :)
