Google wants to help webmasters with hacked sites

If you run a website, regardless if its a personal blog or a major service, then you live somewhat in fear of that site being attacked or defaced. There are ways to help prevent this sort of hacking by taking various security measures within your WordPress installation and there some excellent plugins that can help as well.

Now Google also would like to help out. The company has launched a site especially for webmasters with hacked websites. It gives a brief overview and then begins walking through the steps to help resolve the compromise.

"Every day, cybercriminals compromise thousands of websites. Hacks are often invisible to users, yet remain harmful to anyone viewing the page — including the site owner. For example, unbeknownst to the site owner, the hacker may have infected their site with harmful code which in turn can record keystrokes on visitors’ computers, stealing login credentials for online banking or financial transactions".

There is a seven minute video that discusses how sites can be hacked and what can be done about it when the worst happens. There are also very detailed processes that you can follow.

The steps are categorized by the degree of complication -- Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Beginners, for instance are recommended to call their hosting provider. Intermediate steps include how to quarantine a site, request a review and utilize webmaster tools for help. If you feel like you can handle advanced steps then there is help with assessing damage, identifying vulnerabilities and cleaning the site. All of these steps have links to detailed information.

1	Watch the overview (completed)	Beginner
2	Contact your hoster and build a support team	Beginner
3	Quarantine your site	Intermediate
4	Touch base with Webmaster Tools	Intermediate
5	Assess the damage (hacked with spam) or Assess the damage (hacked with malware)	Advanced
6	Identify the vulnerability	Advanced
7	Clean and maintain your site	Advanced
8	Request a review	Intermediate

Of course, the best thing to do is take preventative steps in advance that will hopefully prevent you from ever needing to use this resource. However, cybercrimminals are always working to stay one step ahead of technology and these days its not about simply defacing a site but, more often, the person behind the hack will attempt to extort a ransom fee from the owner in exchange for getting control back.

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