Hacked websites are becoming more common, Google warns

On Monday Google painted a bleak picture of cyber security trends. The number of websites hacked last year rose by 32% with that number looking set to rise further. “We don’t expect this Trend to slow down. As Hackers get more aggressive and more sites become outdated hackers will continue to capitalize by infecting more sites” Google said on its webmaster blog. The bad news continued when Google pointed out that 61% of webmasters who were hacked never even found out about it. While google does insert warnings about infected sites, webmasters aren’t notified if their sites aren’t verified in the search console. It wasn’t all doom and gloom though as 84% of webmasters who apply for reconsideration are successful in cleaning their sites.

To help fight the rise in hacked sites, Google has promised more help for hacked webmasters. They’ve done this in a number of ways. New documentation has been created to help give webmasters more context when their sites are compromised, including a list of top ways websites get hacked and an explanation of how to know whether your site is compromised. They also explain the three most common kind of hacks and how to fix them. Click on the sub-headings below to be taken to the solution.

---

 The gibberish Hack

This hack automatically creates many pages with non-sensical sentences filled with keywords on the target sites. This makes the hacked pages show up in google search. Should the user click on a compromised link they are directed to an unrelated site.

The Japanese Keywords hack

This hack creates new pages with Japanese text in randomly generated directory names. Affiliate links to stores selling fake brand merchandise then flood the compromised site.

The Cloaked Keywords Hack

This hack creates many pages filled with non-nonsensical sentences, links and images. These pages often utilize the basic templates of the compromised site, so at first glance seem legitimate. In this case the aim is to hide malicious content in the site in order to infect the users PC.

---

The best way to protect your site is to prevent it being hacked in the first place. Google recommends that webmaster should stay up to date on releases and keep an eye out for any announcements from your Content Management System providers.

We at GeekReply will do our part to keep you informed about the latest changes in internet security as they happen.