Many webmasters now choose American hosts to build through WordPress The site will be more or less hacked after it is successfully established. When the WordPress website is hacked, you may know it immediately. But it’s also possible to not realize it for quite some time. So, here are 5 basic signs to look out for to know if your WordPress site has actually been hacked.
1. Unable to log in
This is obvious. If you can't log into your WordPress control panel, it means you've been hacked (unless it's a prank perpetrated by a co-worker). There could be many reasons, but the main reason is using one of the following usernames: If this is the case, change your username immediately, as WordPress accounts using these usernames are often targeted by hackers.
2. Traffic suddenly decreases
If the website was performing very well and now the traffic suddenly drops, then the WordPress website may have been hacked. This is because malicious hackers create a backdoor into the WordPress file system and replace the code with their own scripts and files. In this way, they redirect website traffic to other spam sites, steal visitors' private information, and otherwise cause damage. Additionally, once Google discovers that a site has been infected and is misbehaving, it blacklists the site until it can secure it, all of which can lead to a sudden drop in traffic.
3. The homepage has been compromised
Most hackers operate in secret, but some hackers like to make their names public when they successfully hijack a website. If the homepage is compromised and the hacker's name or some form of announcement is clearly visible, the site has been hacked and requires immediate action. This happens mainly because hackers want to hold the website hostage in exchange for money or other needs.
4. See pop-ups and other ads that are not served
If you see that your WordPress website has become slow and unresponsive, and now there are pop-ups, sidebars, and other ads, this may be It is a sure sign that the website has been hacked. Typically, this type of attack is not done by hackers. Rather, this is an automated attack that gets into the core WordPress system through a weakly protected theme or an insecure plugin. What makes this possible is that the ads will not appear to logged in users or to users who can access the website directly. Instead, ads will only be shown to visitors who came to the site through Google or other referral sites, potentially making it virtually impossible to know that the site has been hacked for a long time. Additionally, ads direct visitors to spam sites, which not only harms the site and its traffic, but also damages its reputation.
5. There are abnormal activities in the website server logs
If there is a very effective way to know whether the website has been hacked, it is to check the website server logs. They are located in the cPanel control panel and can be accessed by logging into your hosting account. Under Statistics in cPanel, you will find two types of logs:
Access logs: These logs show who accessed WordPress from which IP.
Error logs: These logs will show what errors occurred when modifying WordPress system files.
