Why Does My Site Keep Getting Reinfected with Malware?

In an ideal world, once you clean malware from your website, it is gone forever. But we don’t live in an ideal world, and malware is created to be persistent. You might get rid of it today, but if you don’t understand how it first entered your website, chances are it will haunt you again and again. To thoroughly deal with the situation, you’re going to need to look out for the following.

Compromised FTP

FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is a popular protocol used to transfer files over a network. The network could be the internet or a local intranet. This direct access to your server means that once the connection is compromised, malware can easily be uploaded onto your website without your knowledge.

Because the malware has a direct path to your server and website files, it will not matter how many times you do a sweep; the malware will still find a way into your website. Going forward, change your password to something stronger than before. Also, avoid storing passwords in your browser. Another step is to employ FTPS, which encrypts your traffic. This secures your files while you transfer them to your servers.

Insecure Environments

Accessing your website over insecure networks can leave your website having to perpetually fend off malware attacks. It won’t matter how many times you clean your files; so long as the network is not secured, the malware will still find another way into your website.

Cross-site contamination can also be the reason your website keeps getting reinfected. When other websites on the same server are not properly isolated, malware infections can hop from one to the other in no time. This can happen when different applications are running on these servers. So that because not all of them are properly secured with updates or security protocols, they leave the others vulnerable. If your website keeps getting reinfected after several cleanups, it’s possible someone on your shared server has a compromised system that’s infecting the rest of you. But this would be the case only if hosting accounts are not isolated from each other. All hosting accounts on Gesatech servers are isolated to eliminate cross-site infections.

Also, outdated software can serve as entry points for malware. Plugins, website integrations, and other security software on the server need to be regularly updated to keep malware from exploiting their vulnerabilities. Failing to do so will leave your website exposed no matter how many times you do a cleanup.

This also means that your backups should not be in the same digital locations as your live website. Keeping your backup files on the same server could expose them to the same malware that affected your live site. And when you restore that backup after a malware infection, you’ll find that you are back to square one. It is always recommended to automate your backups to run daily so that you are quickly back up after an attack.

Targeted Attacks

A platform like WordPress regularly check its software code to find vulnerabilities. Once it finds them, a patch is created to fix those issues. Users will then have to apply those patches by applying the updates. But just like WordPress scans for vulnerable pieces of code, so too do cybercriminals. Sometimes, they find the vulnerability even before the product developers do, and infect your files with malicious codes.

Between the time of the announcement of the patch’s availability and a user’s application of same, a hacker can target sites that have not applied that patch yet. Once infected, removing the malware from the website will only give you temporary relief. The malware will still be able to reinfect your website because the source of vulnerability has not been fixed yet. The only way to keep the malware out is if you fix that vulnerability by applying the patch.

Compromised Login Credentials

Passwords are only useful if they can’t be predicted. To stay safe and keep your website files from unaruthorised access, it is advisable to change your passwords from time to time. If you don’t, you make yourself susceptible to password-stealing malware. And so while you might have swept your system for malware and other trojans, your website remains vulnerable if the malicious code has already stolen your password.

This applies to everywhere you have a password and not just on your hosting account. From computer passwords to email and even social media accounts, changing your passwords keeps hackers constantly guessing. This makes it more difficult for them to find a way back into your site with a malware infection.

Inefficient Cleanup

One major characteristic of malware is their ability to hide from view. It is only by applying the right tools that you can remove them from your website. A poorly-configured malware removal tool might remove some codes and not others. An antivirus is not necessarily suited to clean malware, no matter how powerful its features suggest. And so if you use the wrong cure for the wrong sickness, malware will still persist in the backdoor, waiting to take over again once the website is up and running.

In order to properly clean a website that has been hacked, it is important to understand how the malware got into the system the first time. Understand its journey into your network and how it is affecting your website. Knowing this will enable you use the right tools to get rid of the malware completely from your website. And then plug out the vulnerability to prevent a recurrence. When in doubt, get professional help.