How to stay clean from Malware

If you are using WordPress, Joomla or any other CMS, and it is not updates to the current version, take a minute to update it. This is because out-of-date software is the leading cause of infections. This includes your CMS version, plugins, themes, and any other extensions that you might be using. Also delete any old plugins or themes that you aren't using anymore, as thesse also increase the attack surface for hackers.

Change your CPANEL password - most people will forget to do this.

If you are using a CMS, change your administrator password. Take a minute to check and verify you know all the users in your panel. This is a good time to clean up accounts, so remove any users with admin access that are not necessary. Make sure that when you change your password you make it strong and do not share it with anyone.

Change your database password if you are using a CMS (WordPress, Joomla, etc). Please be sure to update your configuration file – Joomla: configuration.php and WordPress: wp-config.php. This is not an automated process so you will need to know how to open those files and edit them manually. If you're not familiar with handling changes in your database and configuration files, contact us.

Run a virus scan on your personal desktop/laptop. In a lot of cases we see that websites are compromised via local environment (notebooks, desktops, etc.). Its why we always ask you take a minute to run an Anti-Virus product. If you're OK with spending a little money, we recommend Kaspersky for Windows and MAC, and Sophos and F-Secure for Windows. You can also try Avast, MSE, Spybot that are free alternatives and very good. Here is the bottom-line, it doesn't matter how many times your site gets cleared, if your desktop is not clean, your site can get reinfected quite easily.

Start doing backups of your site, a very good practice is to do daily backups at a minimum. There are number of backup solutions out there you can use, and if your site is with Crazy Domains, it can be handled automatically.

Too often the issues we see plaguing our clients are caused by "soup kitchen" servers. Old installations of their content management systems, themes or plugins. Over time these old installs become forgotten but grow ripe with malware that's ready to infest their entire server after each clean. Take a minute to separate those things that belong on a test, staging and production server. If you have a strong main installation of your site but a thousand old subdomains with test sites on them, take a minute to either secure or delete these if they are no longer necessary.