When trying to fix a hacked WordPress site, time is working against you. Thankfully these 4 steps are all you need to work through. If you’re not sure if you’ve been hacked, read through this post to see if your site has indeed been compromised.
Change all of your passwords
It is mission critical that you change your passwords after discovering your site has been compromised. Why? It will stop the culprit from doing even more damage + ensure that you still have control over your website.
With any hacking (big or small) you’ll want to change the following passwords –
- all administrator users on your WordPress site
- your hosting account
- all FTP accounts (if different from the hosting password)
Helpful article: how to pick + use secure WordPress passwords
While you are working on changing your passwords, look for any new user accounts in your dashboard by going to Users > All Users. Immediately remove any name in the user list that seems off or isn’t one you made.
Restore your site from a backup
Fingers crossed that you’ve been following along + started backing up your site a while ago. If so, you have a backup to restore to — just make sure you are backing up to a version of your site before it was hacked, which means you’ll need to scan it for issues after restoring your backup.
And remember, once you restore your backup, you’ll need to change your password a second time. The backup will have your old password — the one that the hackers may know already.
Helpful article: {video} how to restore a site from a backup
If you don’t have any backups to restore to, it’s time to contact your hosting company. Not all of them do this, but some will have backups available + can help you restore. The faster you act, the better, since they often only store one backup every 24 hours, if at all.
Helpful article: how to backup your WordPress site
Clean up + fix your hacked WordPress site
This is where things get mighty nerdy + is usually a great time to bring in support. But if you want to attempt the cleanup on your own, the best tool for the job is the free WordFence plugin. This plugin will scan your site + tell you exactly which files are suspect, but be careful! Sometimes they flag files that are not actually problematic + you could end up deleting an important theme or site file.
You can also reach out to your hosting company for their assistance (usually for a fee) or contact a WordPress security expert for help.
Did you know that we offer managed WordPress hosting + will have your site fixed for free if it is ever hacked? That’s because we feel that confident in protecting you! Get the details + save yourself from having to stress over a hacked site ever again.
Secure your site
Once you’ve got your site cleaned up, it’s time to figure out what the heck lead to your compromise in the first place. It’s possible it was a weak password, which you solved by changing it to a strong one in the first step, but there could be more weak points that you aren’t seeing.
Take the free WordPress security quiz + not only learn where the weak points of your site are, but exactly how to fix them.