How to protect your website from hacked spam Review Now Tweet Pin It by Guna Nadar - 10/29/2015 2519 Views Hacking wasn’t a problem of the past. When businesses used the internet to sell products and services online during and after 1998, it was only to check and process new orders in between golf course games! But gradually, as the industry grew and support tickets became a part and parcel of the processes, some people began to understand that there was a lot of money to be stolen. Website hacking today has become a vast industry that has been scaring government organizations, international brands and businesses and even the individual web user. In most cases, we just focus on the hacks that take place in well known websites and big brands. However, spammers attack a huge number of businesses and most times, these compromised sites have no idea what is going on. To tackle the same, Google has recently updated its algorithm to include more aggressive filters to identify compromised websites and label them. Protecting your website from hacked spam This has been a problem that is affecting every kind of website hosted on the in internet. In fact, any website with a strong filter in the ‘comment sections’ can become an easy target. Spammers have the tools that allow them to automatically fill the comments and also bypass the captcha using images that are too plain. It can in fact be said that any website that uses basic captcha already hosts a spam. In the first quarter of 2015, cybercriminals used spam to spread micro viruses and programs written in micro languages that were built into the data processing systems. The amount of spam spread through emails during this period was as huge as 59.2%. 1. Password diligence The best way to protect your website from being spammed is a strict password diligence. Ensure that no individual who has access to a site has a common password and it also helps if you can limit the number of attempts made to login before an account is locked. 2. Comment approval Another small step to security would be requiring all comments to be approved by the website owner before they get posted. This will certainly allow tacking the more obvious pieces of comment spams. A closer look at a standard statement, “Thanks for posting this info.It was really helpful” itself is a way to insert malicious links into the website 3. Comment review tools For larger websites, reviewing every comment posted manually can be difficult. Good examples would be news websites and blogs that allow social comments to be added onto the piece itself. Tools like Akismet will be a good option in this case. It will use and international database to scan any comment posted into the site and also track a spam id. This process can also be complimented by setting any links posted in the comment section top NoFollow and automatically removing any hyperlinks from the comments sections. 4. Update website maintenance Technology is improving every other day. Simultaneously spammers are also coming up with upgraded tools to bypass security checks and authentications. A long term maintenance plan will not only help determine the type of attack but also identify the elements (files, codes, content, programs, etc) that have been compromised. Websites built on platforms like Wordpress are also easier to break through and need to be constantly upgraded to maintain the security standards. All of this will ultimately require teaming up with experts and reputed service providers who will constantly gauge the server, software, platform and files to keep you clean. Cyber Crime is growing and it is estimated that by the year 2017, the global market for it will grow to a huge $120.1 billion. Consequently, the estimated yearly loss would be greater than $100 billion. With more than 232.4 million identities already exposed and 18 victims attacked every second, this is an issue that is worth focusing on. For businesses that earn their bread and butter throu8gh online activities, guarding the credibility of their platform is better understood than said. As consumers and even search engines are getting more attuned to the spamming techniques, cyber criminals continue injecting malicious content into legitimate pages. A huge number of legitimate sites have been turned vulnerable to and is being used by spammers to engage in abusive behavior, traffic promotion of sites with low credibility, counterfeit goods marketing, illegal product marketing, porn and malware downloads. Google already requires all websites to implement the standard practices, be it a government website or a hobby organization. Google’s algorithm update would impact 5% of the queries. Website owners are expected to do more on their end to not become a victim and get penalized. It certainly takes much time and effort to root out spam completely. However, it’s also an effort that will ready you for a long term business. Category : SEO News Tags : hacked site penalty, hacked spam Rate this news Share this news delicious digg facebook diigo folkd reddit stumbleupon twitter linkdn About Guna Nadar Brief Info about Guna Nadar + I mostly write technical aspects and not much into creative writing. For the past decade I worked along with top notch SEO & Internet Marketing professionals which naturally lured me into the world of Search Engines. When I am not writing I read from comics to philosophy.Antiques, Fishing, hunting are my passions. Currently I am working on Google Penalty protection and .... more info facebook twitter googleplus linkedin blog rss

How to protect your website from hacked spam

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by Guna Nadar - 10/29/2015 2519 Views

Hacking wasn’t a problem of the past.

When businesses used the internet to sell products and services online during and after 1998, it was only to check and process new orders in between golf course games! But gradually, as the industry grew and support tickets became a part and parcel of the processes, some people began to understand that there was a lot of money to be stolen. Website hacking today has become a vast industry that has been scaring government organizations, international brands and businesses and even the individual web user. In most cases, we just focus on the hacks that take place in well known websites and big brands. However, spammers attack a huge number of businesses and most times, these compromised sites have no idea what is going on. To tackle the same, Google has recently updated its algorithm to include more aggressive filters to identify compromised websites and label them.

Protecting your website from hacked spam

This has been a problem that is affecting every kind of website hosted on the in internet. In fact, any website with a strong filter in the ‘comment sections’ can become an easy target. Spammers have the tools that allow them to automatically fill the comments and also bypass the captcha using images that are too plain. It can in fact be said that any website that uses basic captcha already hosts a spam. In the first quarter of 2015, cybercriminals used spam to spread micro viruses and programs written in micro languages that were built into the data processing systems. The amount of spam spread through emails during this period was as huge as 59.2%.

1. Password diligence

The best way to protect your website from being spammed is a strict password diligence. Ensure that no individual who has access to a site has a common password and it also helps if you can limit the number of attempts made to login before an account is locked.

2. Comment approval

Another small step to security would be requiring all comments to be approved by the website owner before they get posted. This will certainly allow tacking the more obvious pieces of comment spams. A closer look at a standard statement, “Thanks for posting this info.It was really helpful” itself is a way to insert malicious links into the website

3. Comment review tools

For larger websites, reviewing every comment posted manually can be difficult. Good examples would be news websites and blogs that allow social comments to be added onto the piece itself. Tools like Akismet will be a good option in this case. It will use and international database to scan any comment posted into the site and also track a spam id. This process can also be complimented by setting any links posted in the comment section top NoFollow and automatically removing any hyperlinks from the comments sections.

4. Update website maintenance

Technology is improving every other day. Simultaneously spammers are also coming up with upgraded tools to bypass security checks and authentications. A long term maintenance plan will not only help determine the type of attack but also identify the elements (files, codes, content, programs, etc) that have been compromised.

Websites built on platforms like Wordpress are also easier to break through and need to be constantly upgraded to maintain the security standards. All of this will ultimately require teaming up with experts and reputed service providers who will constantly gauge the server, software, platform and files to keep you clean.

Cyber Crime is growing and it is estimated that by the year 2017, the global market for it will grow to a huge $120.1 billion. Consequently, the estimated yearly loss would be greater than $100 billion. With more than 232.4 million identities already exposed and 18 victims attacked every second, this is an issue that is worth focusing on. For businesses that earn their bread and butter throu8gh online activities, guarding the credibility of their platform is better understood than said. As consumers and even search engines are getting more attuned to the spamming techniques, cyber criminals continue injecting malicious content into legitimate pages.

A huge number of legitimate sites have been turned vulnerable to and is being used by spammers to engage in abusive behavior, traffic promotion of sites with low credibility, counterfeit goods marketing, illegal product marketing, porn and malware downloads. Google already requires all websites to implement the standard practices, be it a government website or a hobby organization. Google’s algorithm update would impact 5% of the queries. Website owners are expected to do more on their end to not become a victim and get penalized.

It certainly takes much time and effort to root out spam completely. However, it’s also an effort that will ready you for a long term business.

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hacked site penalty, hacked spam

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About Guna Nadar

Brief Info about Guna Nadar +

I mostly write technical aspects and not much into creative writing. For the past decade I worked along with top notch SEO & Internet Marketing professionals which naturally lured me into the world of Search Engines. When I am not writing I read from comics to philosophy.Antiques, Fishing, hunting are my passions. Currently I am working on Google Penalty protection and .... more info