Website protection after malware removal

It is important to not only remove all malware from your website, but also ensure that you've done everything to prevent subsequent infection. There are several simple points you must follow after cleaning your site of all viruses. And you need to implement them as soon as your site is free of malware, with point one probably better completed before even starting site cleanup.

 To prevent subsequent malware infections, do the following:

1. Make sure you've checked and cleaned your computer of viruses, as well as all other computers you use to access website management.
2. After cleaning your PC, change all website access passwords (ftp, mysql database, administrator password and administrator mailbox password that is set in website settings, if any). It will also make not hurt to change hosting control panel password in case it is different from FTP password.
3. Never ever again save FTP password and website management system password in any program. Write it up somewhere secure and always type it in manually, or copy from a text file. Do not tell anyone these passwords or/and instruct everyone who has FTP access not to use options to save passwords.
4. It is strongly recommended not to use FTP at all and replace it with SFTP. Check with your hosting provider whether it is possible.
5. Regularly update your antivirus. Of the commercial ones we recommend nod32, drweb and kaspersky antivirus. Of the free ones - Avast.
6. Make sure to update site management system and all it's components and plugins to their latest versions. This will significantly reduce risks of repeated infections. Such updates muct be performed regularly as new versions of your site management system and it's components appear. As a bare minimum, at least twice every year.
7. Check access rights on your files and folders. Rights 777 for folders and 666 for files may be used only for files from a specific, strictly defined list. You can find that list in webiste management system setup manual or in manual for it's additional components. Even if there are such files in manuals, check with your hosting provider tech support if their setup is a necessary must. Do not change access rights for files and folders you haven't created on FTP server (like public_html, www, htdocs, and so on).
8. If you duly follow all these instructuons, there are no viruses at your computer, yet infections repeat again and again, there is a point to think about changing your hosting provider.

It wouldn't be excess to check out the "Protected hosting" service, that guarantees reduction of subsequent infection chance almost to zero.

As an important notice, the most popular site management systems Joomla and Wordpress are ones to be most likely infected. The reason is not just their popularity, but also weak program realization. Quite often components for them are made by inexperienced developers. That, in turn, is a cause of a large number of vulnerabilities (hacking methods). Websites that use joomla or wordpress are quite difficult to protect from viruses completely, yet it is quite real. If you encounter a situation when your website is constantly infected and somebody recommends you to rework your site, do not rush. We will definitely try to help you.