More and more sites have fallen victim to hackers recently and some important steps should be taken to (1) secure your site and (2) monitor that your site hasn’t been hacked.
(1) Previously I have already listed some basic tips on how to secure your site from being hacked:
- make sure your hosting company is safe and able to handle the situation properly;
- make sure your CMS (WordPress) version is up-to-date;
- check Google’s security checklist.
(2) Still you can’t be 100% secure and that’s why it is essential to try some simple ways to monitor the situation. I have come across two possible ways to do that both based on the mighty Google:
1. SerpGuard is a new free service that “checks the Google Safe Browsing Blacklists for your domain(s)” and instantly sends you an RSS message and email once it finds your site there. It’s easy to register but requires your site to be claimed in the system.
To claim your site you will need to upload a generated page to your site root directory and get a confirmation. I haven’t seen the tool in action as (thanks God), none of my sites has been hacked yet, but as they say, better safe than sorry, so you’d better try it too.
2. Patrick Altoft offered a simple and genius way to find out that your site gets hacked by setting up an email alert in Google Alerts: [viagra OR cialis OR levitra OR Phentermine OR Xanax site:YourSiteDomain]: