Is your GoDaddy site sending out spam emails to your customers? Have you noticed that your website is slow for no reason? It’s most likely that your GoDaddy website is hacked.

The repercussions of a hack are tremendous. Besides sending spam mails, hackers can cause a lot of damage to your website. They steal credit card information, damage your website, and ruin your reputation. And as a result, you lose customers along with valuable data, time and money!

But don’t worry, you can fix your GoDaddy site quickly and avoid these repercussions. In this article, you’ll learn how to scan your site for malware, clean and protect your GoDaddy website from future malware attacks.

TL;DR – If your GoDaddy site is hacked, you need to fix it immediately in order to avoid facing bigger problems. Install MalCare on your site to scan and clean your website. You can get rid of the malware and get your site back to normal in under a few minutes.

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To find and fix WordPress malware infections, we first need to understand what malware is and how it infects your website.

 

What Is Malware And How Does Your Website Get Infected?

Malware is any software created with malicious intentions such as hijacking websites and stealing money, identities, or data. Malware is a broad term and encompasses viruses, adware, spyware, worms, trojans, keyloggers and more.

There are several ways in which your website can get infected with the malware:

1) Pirated Software

One of the easiest ways hackers trick website owners into injecting malware on their site is by distributing pirated software. Cracked or nulled versions of software could carry pre-installed malware. When you install pirated software (such as a theme or plugin), the malware gets injected and the hacker can use it to take control of your website.

2) Visiting Malicious Sites

When you visit a malicious website or one that is already hacked, the site could initiate an automatic download. The download will contain malware that can infect your computer. The hacker can then use it to access your browser and enter your website. They can also use malicious redirects to redirect you to another site..

3) Phishing Emails

Hackers send phishing emails luring potential victims to click on the link. We’ve illustrated an example below where hackers send an email from the Apple Team with a bill for $104.16. .

Anyone who receives this would be shocked to see this bill especially if they don’t use Apple! The hacker includes a link “Go to Review Center to cancel or review your transaction.” In a moment of panic or confusion, the reader might click on this link. It will redirect them to a malicious site. Then, the hacker can repeat the same process as mentioned in the point above.

4) Brute-force attacks

In this scenario, hackers guess your login credentials and gain access to your site. They use bots designed to try a thousand combinations of usernames and passwords in a few seconds. Nowadays, they are successful only around 10% of the time but it’s still a popular technique used by hackers.

If you suspect that your site has been hacked, we’ve detailed the signs you need to look out for.

 

How To Identify If Your Godaddy Website Has Been Hacked?

If you are unsure that your site is hacked, then you can look at the classic signs of a hacked website to identify if your site is in danger.

Classic Signs Of A Hacked WordPress Website

1. Website pages are displaying content that is not yours.
2. Website ranks for seo spam keywords on Google such as ‘cheap Gucci bags’ or ‘Buy viagra online’.
3. Site’s performance and speed is suddenly slow.
4. Web host sends you a notice that you’ve used too much of your server resources.
5. When you visit your site, it redirects you to another website.
6. See strange ads on your website.
7. GoDaddy has sent you a notice, disabled your website and suspended your hosting account.
8. Notice spam emails being sent from your account.
9. Notice new users on your WordPress dashboard.
10. Find a new plugin installed on your WordPress site.
11. Website is flagged for malware as Google displays a warning that your site contains malware.

If you spot these signs, you’re most likely right that your site is hacked. You can confirm your suspicions by scanning your website for malware.

 

How To Scan A Hacked GoDaddy Website

There are many WordPress malware scanners available in the market including one offered by GoDaddy. Here, to detect malware, we’ll discuss GoDaddy’s scanner and MalCare, BlogVault’s sister plugin because it’s the fastest malware removal plugin out there.

Scan With The MalCare Security Plugin

To use MalCare, you simply need to install it for free on your WordPress site.

Here’s why we recommend this plugin:

• Once you add MalCare to your site, you can scan your site for free.
• The scan is automated and occurs instantly.

• It checks every file and folder of your site and leaves no stone unturned.
• It finds malicious code by analyzing the code’s behavior. This helps it locate even hidden and disguised malware. It also helps eliminate false positives.
• It does all this in just a few minutes.

If there is malware on your website, you can be sure that MalCare will find it. Once it finds the malware, you’ll see a malware warning like so:

We’ll discuss how to clean your website with MalCare in the next section. First, we will also show you the malware scanner option available from GoDaddy.

Using GoDaddy Malware Scan

You can buy GoDaddy’s Website Security plan and use it to check for malware. It will also help you identify if you’ve been blacklisted by any search engines. To use this tool, you need to buy a plan that starts at $6.99 per month.

1. Once purchased, you can access your GoDaddy dashboard > My Products > Website Security.

2. Here, choose ‘Setup for Website Security Express’.

3. After that, you need to enter your domain name and select ‘Get Started with Website Security’.

4. On the next page, select ‘Request Cleanup’.

5. GoDaddy will display a list of problems you are facing with your site. You can select the ones applicable.

6. Next, provide your FTP or SFTP credentials and submit your request.

What you need to know here is that this can take a long time. A security analyst from GoDaddy will be assigned your case and they will scan your website. You can track the status of your request from the ‘Cleanup’ tab in your GoDaddy account.

If you’ve found malware on your website, you need to fix it fast. The more you delay, the bigger the problem gets!

 

How To Remove Malware From GoDaddy Websites?

There are many options available to fix your hacked GoDaddy website, but not all are effective. You can even go about it manually, locating and deleting the malware, but this is method requires technical knowledge. We don’t recommend cleaning your site manually, but if you want to learn more about it, you can refer to our extensive guide on fixing a hacked site.

A faster and 100% effective way to clean your website would be to use a reliable WordPress malware removal plugin.

Clean Your Hacked Website With MalCare

As we illustrated earlier, it’s easy to find malware on your GoDaddy hosted website using the MalCare scanner. Cleaning it is even easier. Let’s see how to do this!

• If you’re a first-time user, malware removal services are offered with the premium plan. You would need to purchase the plan starting at $99 per year ($8.25 per month).
• When you see the alert that hacked files have been detected, there is an option called ‘Auto-Clean’.

• Click on it and MalCare will begin to clean your site. It will delete all malicious code from your files and folders.
• In a few minutes, it will alert you that your site is clean.

You can visit your website and check if all the pages are working fine. You can also run a second scan to make sure it’s completely clean.

Clean Your Hacked Website With GoDaddy Malware Removal

GoDaddy’s Malware Removal process is very different. The process is handled by GoDaddy’s internal web security team and the tool is powered by Sucuri. GoDaddy offers different levels of security and malware protection in 4 different plans: Basic, Deluxe, Ultimate and Express. The costs vary been $80 and $330 per year.

The time taken to clean your site will greatly vary depending on the plan you select. The general process followed is:

1. As we stated earlier, you need to purchase the websites security to scan your site.
2. You need to enter all your website details.
3. Once you submit your site for scanning, GoDaddy will assign a security analyst to review your site. There is no option to scan your site and find malware.
4. If they find malware on your GoDaddy site, they will clean it and restore it to normal. This can take a few days.

Even with the highest plan – the Express package – the response time is 30 minutes. After which, they will proceed to clean your site. This can take a few hours or a few days.

When you have a hacked website, time is of the essence. The longer you wait, the dire the consequences. We strongly recommend using an option like MalCare that will remove the malware and restore your site back to normal quickly. It also costs you less!

 

Prevent Future Attacks On Your GoDaddy Website With MalCare

After MalCare removes the malware, it will continue protecting your GoDaddy website from hackers. You can secure your website with:

1. Regular automated scans – MalCare will scan your site daily. You can also schedule scans or run a scan on demand. There are no limits on the number of scans you can run.
2. Unlimited malware cleanups – If you’re a victim of a website hack again, you can clean up your site any number of times.
3. Automated backups – Powered by BlogVault, the plugin will take backups of your website regularly. In the event something goes wrong, you can restore your site in one click.
4. Firewall – Your site will be protected with a robust firewall. Malicious traffic, IP addresses, and bad bots will be blocked from visiting your site.
5. Alerts – If there is any suspicious activity on your site, you’ll be alerted immediately.
6. Activity log – The plugin maintains a log of login attempts and visitor requests made to your site. Such logs come in handy while trying to determine how you got hacked.
7. Login protection – MalCare implements login protection on your site automatically. This blocks brute-forcing bots.
8. Hardening measures – There are certain website hardening measures that WordPress recommends. You can implement these measures from the MalCare dashboard.

You can rest assured that your site is protected from future attacks if you have MalCare installed on your site.

 

In Conclusion

WordPress websites are targeted by hackers every second of every day no matter which hosting provider you use.

To keep your website safe, you need to take security measures of your own. Make sure your site has an SSL certificate and a trusted WordPress plugin like BlogVault installed.

The plugin will monitor and scan your website regularly. You’ll have peace of mind knowing that if you’re ever under attack, you can quickly clean your site and get it back to normal!