If you've ever helped a friend recover their hacked site, you know it can get fairly
complicated – beyond just the technical issues. First, recovery might involve answering your
friend’s general questions like "Why would someone do this to my site?" Second, you might
wonder “What’s the process to have the ‘This
site may harm your computer’ warning label removed from search results?” Our new
Help for hacked
sites series includes articles and 80+ minutes of video to help you, and
to help you help others. In the overview video, these common questions are addressed:
Why would someone ever want to hack my site? (often asked by our trusting
friends :) )
How was someone able to hack my site?
What's the process for fixing it and how long will it take?
To avoid ever needing this resource yourself, please implement a security and maintenance plan
for your site if you haven't already.
Be vigilant about keeping software updated.
Understand the security practices of all applications, plug-ins, third-party
software, and so on, before you install them on your server. A security vulnerability in one
software application can affect the safety of your entire site.
Remove unnecessary or unused software.
Enforce creation of strong passwords.
Keep all devices used to log in to your servers secure (updated operating system and
browser).
Make regular, automated site backups.
We’d like to thank the developer community for sharing tips on site recovery as
well as replying to forum
questions to assist others with hacked sites. Special thanks to Redleg and Denis Sinegubko for their amazing
contributions.
Maile Ohye
is a Developer Advocate on Google's Webmaster Central Team. She very much enjoys chatting with
friends and helping companies build a strategic online presence.
