How to Remove Malware from Your Website?

Malicious software, also known as malware, is increasing every day with advancing technologies. Malware attacks have the potential to cripple the digital assets of major businesses, taking days or weeks to fix.

Following a malware attack, scanning and cleaning viruses on a website can be time-consuming for network administrators. Business websites also face the risk of being blacklisted by search engines like Google.

Where Does Malware Come From and How Does It Infect?

Malware is created and distributed by organized cybercrime groups and individuals. Most malware attacks target security vulnerabilities in popular content management systems (CMS) such as Joomla!, Magento, and WordPress.

Hackers can attack vulnerable websites with malicious software that can redirect website traffic to other sites, compromise or delete databases, send undetectable spam messages, or execute fake email campaigns.

Brute force attacks are another common method for malware to infiltrate websites.

Detecting Malware

If you're unsure whether malware has infected your site, you can use Google's free Safe Browsing Site Status service to scan your site. If you're a web developer with advanced skills, you can check your website files, .htaccess, WordPress core files (usually files starting with "wp-"), and unknown file names for malware. Malware is often encoded in Base64 format.

Ways to Protect Your Website from Malware

After completing the malware removal process, you can implement the following basic tips to keep your website secure:

• Install an SSL certificate to help protect your visitors' sensitive data.
• Install a Web Application Firewall (WAF) for proactive malware protection.
• Change your password every 90 days.
• Install as few plugins as possible on your website and remove unnecessary ones.
• Limit individuals who have access to your website.
• Regularly update your core files, themes, and plugins in your CMS to avoid any changes or security vulnerabilities.