How to know if your Magento Website has been Hacked?

With an increase in the growth of technologies, it is a bit easier to hack websites. And that is one of the common issues in an eCommerce business that one should take care of. When the website gets hacked, it is undoubtedly an issue, but the more significant problem is when the owner doesn’t know about it.

Many times the website gets hacked, and yet the owners are not aware of that. Subsequently, even the customers have to face problems such as their credit card might get hacked and many more. To avoid this, it is essential to know when the website gets hacked.

Website security is one of the most critical aspects of an eCommerce business. Yet, it is the least aspect the owner will focus on. With all fancy and unique products available on the website, there is almost no point in doing this business if there is no website security.

Hence, apart from all these things, the owners should always make their websites more secure. However, 100% security is a myth when it comes to an online business. However, the owner should try to make the website as safe as possible and minimize cyberattacks’ risk.

Below are the things that will help in knowing whether the website is hacked or not?

Notifications from Hosting Providers: 

Typically, if the website gets hacked, then the hosting providers such as GoDaddy will immediately turn the website down and send an alert message to the owner of the website, notifying them about the same. 

The owners should avoid ignoring such emails and should always take action if they have received such emails. Sometimes even the customers who are using the website may also notice some unusual behavior and inform the owner of security issues.

Never ignore such emails from customers and try to verify their claims and fix the issues. 

Browser Shows a Warning: 

When the website gets hacked, the google chrome will show a sign to the owner or the customers that the website has been hacked. This pop-up box is displayed when Google Safe Browsing has blacklisted the website.

Do not ignore such warnings from your browser. It is typically red. However, the warning message may vary depending upon what unusual behavior google has noticed on the website, but more or less they look like this:

Broken Code:

 Lately, if the owners receive a lot of complaints from the customers regarding the form submission, missing contents from the websites, and an increase in errors, that is a hint that the website is hacked.

When the hackers hack the website, they have complete control of the website. They can break the code intentionally, which might lead to a lot of errors on the website. Hence, if the owner has started facing mistakes on the website, actions should be taken.

Alerts from Google Search Console: 

If the website is linked to the google search console, Google’ll send you an alert saying that the website has been hacked. That also signifies that Google has detected some unusual activities such as spam content, malicious code, and many more to help Google know that the website is hacked. 

Depending upon the settings, Google will automatically send an email notifying about the same. This alert also comes with details such as suspected URLs and attack vectors and how to fix the problem. The owners should always monitor their inbox to catch such signs fast.

Complaints Regarding Credit Cards: 

With cutting-edge technologies, hackers have learned how to collect the customers’ credit card information stored on the website. Later on, this information is sold to the people who eventually do fraud transactions on the Internet. 

Hackers mostly target such attacks as it will help them in gaining a lot of money. They are caused primarily due to security vulnerabilities. It will directly impact sales, and it will create a wrong impression of the brand name.

Website Redirected to Different Sites: 

This is also a significant concern in an eCommerce business where the hackers will turn the website to other websites or the competitor’s websites.

When customers visit your website, they are redirected automatically to the competitor’s website without even taking permission from customers. Hence, the customer will make the purchase and do the transaction without any idea of this attack.

They will think they are purchasing from the same website that they have visited and will be unaware of this attack. 

Malicious JavaScript Code: 

Often, hackers write malicious javascript code on the web page to steal the users’ sensitive information from the website. The owners should quickly remove the code or comment it out to avoid such an attack.

These javascript codes might also redirect the customers to different websites, pop-ups, and advertisements that can harm the owner’s sales. 

Emails are sent to SPAM: 

]Hackers know how to send substantial emails to spam folders sent by the owner. Often, an owner would likely send an email to their customers regarding the sales, or the items added in their cart, price drop alerts, and many more.

All these emails will automatically be sent to the spam folder, and the owner will have no idea about it. The owner might notice the decrease in the sales yet will be unaware of this attack. 

Also, when many emails go to the Spam folder, there might be a case where the email servers will blacklist the server of the owner and its IP address. 

User Accounts: 

The website owner should often keep track of the admin accounts and access the database. If any unauthorized user is present, which is not created by the owner, there are high chances that the website is hacked. 

The hackers will create an account of their own and try to have all the admin’s access. It is mandatory to check the file of the authorized users periodically.

Files Modified Recently: 

If the owner notices the code that has not been written by them, they should immediately compare it with the earlier versions to check what has been modified. 

The hacker might have modified the file to run the malicious code, create back-doors to the website, send spam emails, pop-up redirecting to different websites, and many more.

If the owner observes any strange looking file names, it is a strong indication that the website is hacked. 

Unknown Plugins: 

Often, plugins have been incorporated into the website to achieve many functionalities. Hackers will take advantage of this and include various files disguised as plugins to perform specific functions. 

Out of a plethora of different plugins, it is difficult for the owner to notice a plugin that they have not incorporated. Hence, this is one of the common ways used by hackers to hack websites. If the owner sees any unusual plugins, they should immediately find the source from where they came and their doing.

Website Performance: 

The website owner should always keep an eye on the website’s performance. They should check periodically whether everything is working as per the expectations and check the web pages’ loading time as and when possible.

Hackers will try to increase the web pages’ loading page and decrease traffic on the website. By regularly monitoring the website, the owner will immediately catch if there is something unusual going on. 

For example, the owner noticed that the checkout page takes 10 seconds to load, which is 6 seconds more than the usual time it takes to load. They should immediately do an in-depth dive analysis of what caused the checkout page this long to load.

Suspicious Activity in Server logs: 

Server logs are one of the easiest ways to detect a hacked website. Suppose the owner sees an IP address hitting a particular page repeatedly for the past few days. In that case, they should immediately look for more details, such as which page is that.

Sometimes, the owner will see a page in the logs that they won’t recognize, which is a strong indication. Reviewing the records regularly can provide warnings that can provide early warning about the attempts and stop the hackers from gaining access to the website. 

Wrapping up!!

Web security is a very crucial parameter while running an online eCommerce business. Along with the products and other aspects, the owner should consider web security as one of the essential elements to directly impact sales and brand name.

With the advanced technologies used by hackers, It is challenging to know when the website is hacked. But no longer! We’ve mentioned the most likely possibilities in this article that could occur when the website is hacked. 

Lastly, the owners should always be vigilant and do not consider this lightly as we know prevention is better than cure, and this holds here as well. If you need any help regarding Magento eCommerce site, feel free to reach us!