Overview of Hacked Site Recovery

Introduction

• Speaker: Maile Ohye, from Google's Webmaster Support team.
• Topic: Responding to and recovering from a hacked (compromised) website.
• Importance: Hacked sites can affect businesses, governments, personal blogs. Recovery is possible.

Initial Response to a Hack

• Possible notifications:
  • Hack notice in search results.
  • Browser notifications.
  • Messages from a search engine.
  • Emails from friends.
• Prompt action is necessary to recover.

Recovery Possibility

• StopBadware: A nonprofit that has helped 130,000 websites remove malware warnings.
• Two recovery approaches:
  1. DIY for tech-savvy individuals.
  2. Hire experts if tasks are too technical.
• Identifying vulnerabilities, fixing them, and completing the review process can make sites robust.

Understanding Hacking

• Vulnerability: A weakness in a site that hackers exploit.
• Common Attack Methods:
  • Outdated or insecure software.
  • Stolen login credentials.
  • Malware on personal computers that steal credentials.
• Result: Unauthorized actions on the site, e.g., adding spammy text/malware.

Motivations for Hacking

• Financial Gain:
  • Spam Strategy: Adds links to unrelated, often disreputable sites.
  • Malware Strategy: Distributes malicious software to users’ computers.
• Spam Example:
  • Infected sites may have hidden spam links/text to benefit others' businesses.
  • Often goes unnoticed by the site owner.
• Malware Example:
  • Infects users' computers to steal credentials for financial gain.

Detection and Notifications

• Google’s Role:
  • Uses automated tools to detect hacked sites.
  • Adds notifications in search results.
  • Contacts site owners via Google Webmaster Tools and email.
• Objective: Protect users and alert site owners.

Recovery Process

• Steps:
  1. Clean the site of hacked content (most challenging part).
  2. Complete review process to remove warnings.
• Timeframe:
  • Malware/phishing: Up to a day for review.
  • Spam: May take several weeks due to manual investigation.

Conclusion

• Summary: Understanding and quick action can lead to recovery.
• Next Steps: Decide on a recovery approach and follow through with the necessary steps.
• Further Guidance: Next video will discuss detailed recovery options.