Viruses On The Site — How To Detect, Neutralise And Eliminate The Damage Caused
A virus on a website is much more common than one might think. We propose to discuss what is the danger of getting malicious code on a web project, how to find it and neutralise it.
What threats do viruses pose to site owners?
The first and main threat is the failure of the project functionality in whole or in part. Imagine that when you open your page, you see just a white screen or you are redirected to a casino or a porn site.
Other consequences of a virus attack on a web resource include the display of someone else’s advertising, broken layout, data loss, and much more. And the «black label» from Google or Yandex — «this site may threaten the security of your computer» — is not the best way to attract customers.
In addition to the risk of a constant and increasing loss of traffic, there is a danger of a site being pessimistic in search results or even completely blocked in search engines.
And for a business, all these threats to a web project result in two major losses: recovery costs and lost income during downtime.
How to understand that your site is infected
There are a number of obvious signs that indicate the presence of a virus on the site. You should be alert as soon as you find any of the following problems, or a combination of them:
- the number of visitors to the site has dropped sharply;
- increased loading time of pages that include resources;
- the bounce rate jumped sharply for no apparent reason;
- errors appear in Google Search Console one after another;
- the antivirus built into the browser blocks access to the site;
- the functionality of the site is broken — some features are not available or the tools do not work correctly;
- the site does not work at all — white pages began to appear when loading;
- project pages display content that you did not add;
- there were problems with feedback;
- new folders, files appeared on the server;
- Google sent a notification about the presence of malicious software in a container when using Google Tag Manager (more).
All this suggests that your resource has picked up a virus, and the infected site is an easy prey for intruders or a platform for spam.
Why are viruses dangerous on the site?
- Complete failure of the site (white screen).
- Partial failure of the functionality, which does not allow, for example, to place orders, send applications or perform other targeted actions.
- Complete or partial loss of access to a resource.
- Theft of personal data of the project owner and clients.
- Blocking of the site by the search engine and antiviruses of visitors.
- Decrease in traffic.
- Exclusion of a site from search results.
- Loss of user trust.
- Sanctions against the domain for sending spam.
- Decreased domain authority.
And when it comes to websites for online businesses, each of these problems is a loss of income.
