WordPress Site Hacking: Why It Happens, Prevention Methods, and More

Nothing online is secure from data breaches. According to Statista, 3,205 cases of online data compromise emerged in 2023, with 353 million affected individuals. The most prominent case in America was the Yahoo data breach that impacted over 3 billion users.
Do you know what this statistic proves? It subtly highlights that nobody is safe from online threats, even business owners with robust security measures. 
Did you know websites are the most vulnerable to such issues, especially hacking? Let’s say you own a business and have created a WordPress website because of the tool’s convenience. 
This CMS is used by over 62% of all sites. Even with such popularity, millions of WordPress sites were impacted when a few plugins were hacked. Such a cybercrime can pose serious ramifications for your business by jeopardizing visitors’ personal information. 
In this blog post, we will discuss everything about WordPress website hacking and how website maintenance services can help.

7 Signs of a Hacked WordPress Website

According to Hackread News, thousands of WordPress websites have been hacked with new Sign1 malware. Thankfully, visitors, website owners, and other users could easily identify the signs. They eventually took security measures. 
Did you know there are clear indicators of a hacked WordPress website? The common ones include the following:

1. Unable to log into the WP dashboard
2. Warnings on search engine rankings and browsers
3. Unexplained changes in the website content
4. Suspicious user account creation with admin privilege 
5. Unknown and sudden redirection
6. Unable to send and receive emails
7. A sudden drop in traffic due to unresponsiveness

Apart from these, you might also notice bad and broken links being added to your landing pages. If your WordPress site gets hacked, the homepage will become defaced and have unknown scripts and files. 
Understanding these indicators allows you to alleviate the threats and eventually recover the site before further damage. 

What Are the Common Reasons WordPress Websites Get Hacked?

WordPress websites can get hacked due to the following reasons:

Not Updating Plugins

On WordPress’s discussion page, a company named Salescart mentioned that their website kept getting hacked even after downloading security plugins. Research shows that 97% of all WordPress security breaches exploit this. 
These usually happen when you’ve neglected to update the plugins or change them, leading to security threats. That’s why you’ll need WordPress website maintenance services to help with patch updates and bug fixes to eliminate unauthorized access.

Not Creating a Strong Password

Did you know that 62.9% of people change their passwords only when prompted? About 30% of users have witnessed security breaches due to a weak password. 
This issue is also common among businesses with a WordPress website. Weak passwords can indeed become a major security risk. For instance, fraudsters can crack simple and common passwords using common hacking methods. That’s why you’ll need stronger passwords to safeguard admin accounts. 

How Can WordPress Maintenance Services Help?

According to Belov Digital Agency, experienced maintenance service providers can deal with compromised WordPress sites through restoration, cleanups, backups, etc. They also help strengthen security to prevent future data breaches and hacks. Many of the top WordPress developers also offer proactive security hardening and performance optimization as part of their service suites.

But how does this improve security? Reliable WordPress maintenance services and plans can help keep your website secure in the following manner:

• Use of stringent security measures through regular monitoring
• Consistent website updates and issue resolution
• Monitoring of suspicious activities to prevent security breaches
• Implementation of extended firewalls and uptime monitoring.

These services only cost between USD 150 and USD 500. Within this monthly subscription package, you’ll get initial protection against various hacking attempts. They’ll also provide security alerts. For instance, if search systems flag any possible hacks, the maintenance service providers will rectify the issues after proper investigation. 

Other Solutions to Fix a Hacked Website

Your WordPress site can get hacked after fraudsters exploit the backdoor, use malicious redirects, implement D0S attacks, etc. Apart from website maintenance service, you can follow these tips to retrieve a hacked WordPress site:

• Reset passwords
• Search for malware
• Reinstall WordPress
• Disable PHP execution
• Remove admin privileges for new users 
• Clean the database and sitemap

To prevent this from happening again, remember to collaborate with a maintenance service provider. As mentioned, with their help, you can create secured credentials, get regular security monitoring, check for consistent plugin updates, and protect against malware attacks.

The Bottom Line

Let’s say you cannot log into your dashboard or contact WP support from the website. That’ll be a clear indication that it has been hacked. Just recently, hacked WordPress sites have started abusing visitors’ browsers to facilitate a distributed brute-force attack. 
As a solution, you must keep sites secured by collaborating with a WordPress maintenance service provider. You can use the benefits of security and uptime monitoring offered by WordPress website maintenance. With their help, you can keep your WordPress core secured and ensure all maintenance tasks are taken care of.