Google Launch Help for Hacked Sites
Uncategorized

Google Launch Help for Hacked Sites

13th March 2013

Having your site hacked is one of the most difficult things for a website owner to face. If your site has been compromised you will know that it can take time and effort that you may not have to ‘clean up’.

Help is on it’s way however as Google yesterday launched their Help Center for Hacked Sites. The help centre is a dedicated informational resource and series of step by step instructional videos to help you deal with site insecurities, identify any vulnerability,  fix the problem and go through the review process. The help centre also offers advice on how not to get hacked in the first place.

How do you know if your site has been hacked?

malaware-warningUnfortunately for many of us, we find out after a site has been compromised. Notifications usually come in one of these forms:

  • Hack Notice from Search Results
  • Notification in your browser
  • A Message from a Search Engine
  • An email from a customer or colleague informing you about a Malware warning

How Do you get Hacked?

Hackers find vulnerabilities on your site, and create a software programme to then exploit that vulnerability on yours and many other sites. Once they are in, they can in theory do anything to your website including adding spam content and  hijacking your site to host malware to then ‘infect’ visitors and other sites.

Most sites have vulnerabilities but common ways to be hacked include:

  • Out of date plug ins and software
  • Insecure or stolen Login Credentials
  • Malware on your personal or work computer that then steals credentials
  • (and a host of other access points from unscrupulous webmasters for $$)

I was going to include a ‘why have I been hacked‘ but it goes without saying that you probably don’t want to make a habit of upsetting ‘hacktivist’ groups like ‘Anonymous’!

Need Help?

If you’re unsure, always enlist the help of an expert, but if you are confident of fixing the problem yourself – the new hack centre should help make the process quicker and more effective.

For an overview on the Google Hack Help centre watch this video from Maile Ohye – Developer Programs Tech Lead – Google

For more information visit the Official Google Webmaster Blog

Tags

Written By
Jackie Hole is an Award Winning Search Marketing consultant specialising in Paid Search, Conversion Improvement and Organic Search / SEO for the USA, Canada and European markets. Starting out in Multimedia & Interface Design, Jackie has over 15 years experience in online marketing and was recently awarded European Search Personality...
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.