{"id":107,"date":"2020-06-03T12:01:43","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T11:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kbnco.names.dev.pdunsford.localdev\/?post_type=ht_kb&#038;p=107"},"modified":"2021-01-29T13:00:53","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T13:00:53","slug":"what-is-malware","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/www.websites-madesimple.co.uk\/support\/articles\/what-is-malware\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Malware?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The term Malware is short for malicious software.<br><br>Malware is a common term used when referring to harmful applications or malicious code such as viruses, Trojan horses, worms, spyware or even adware.<br><br>So Malware does not always mean you have a harmful virus on your website, it can be as little as an unwanted pop-ups or adverts. Either way Malware is unwanted content that you do not want on your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What can I do to help prevent my website being compromised?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>If you are using a content management system, such as Joomla or WordPress, installing the latest version, and keeping it patched up-to-date, will help minimise the risks of your website being compromised.<\/li><li>Setting a more secure username and password, try to avoid using a commonly known username such as&nbsp;<strong>admin<\/strong>&nbsp;and set a password that cannot be easily guessed by including numbers, symbols(@ &amp; ! etc), and upper case letters.<\/li><li>Ensure any devices you use to log into your website, either by a back end portal or FTP, are checked for viruses.<\/li><li>Scan your website regularly using a scanning tool such as&nbsp;<strong>SiteLock<\/strong>.<\/li><li><strong>SiteLock<\/strong>&nbsp;can find and remove malware from anywhere on your site and protects your site using a firewall to prevent harmful visitors from entering your site.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do I remove Malware if my website has been compromised?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The higher level&nbsp;<strong>SiteLock<\/strong>&nbsp;Package comes with SMART (Secure Malware Alert &amp; Removal Tool) technology, which performs deep website scans at set intervals to detect malware and automatically remove it, the SMART feature offers&nbsp;<strong>SiteLock<\/strong>&nbsp;customers an additional layer of security to ensure peace of mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you do not have this feature we recommend the following manual steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Take your website offline by moving your web content out of the web directory.<\/li><li>Remove the offending code.<\/li><li>Thoroughly check your website for any additional compromises, by scanning your website. A scanning tool such as ClamAV is a good tool for this and is free.<\/li><li>Once you have done this re upload the cleaned version of your website<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The term Malware is short for malicious software. Malware is a common term used when referring to harmful applications or malicious code such as viruses, Trojan horses, worms, spyware or even adware. So Malware does not always mean you have a harmful virus on your website, it can be as little as an unwanted pop-ups [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"ht-kb-category":[47],"ht-kb-tag":[46],"class_list":["post-107","ht_kb","type-ht_kb","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","ht_kb_category-security","ht_kb_tag-security"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Malware? - Support Centre - Websites MadeSimple\u2122<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is Malware? - Support Centre - Websites MadeSimple\u2122\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The term Malware is short for malicious software. 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