Hackers Don’t Deface Sites Any Longer
5th May 2009 by Kerry Dye
Once upon a time, when your site got hacked, it was emblazoned with a “this site hacked by XX” message. You got the picture straight away, and then it was cleanup time.
These days, hacking is much more insidious. Not only are the attacks not done in the same way, they often don’t try to let anyone notice. They insert little bits of code onto your site that don’t show up when you visit the site. There is the link insertion type of hack, and there is the malicious hack, which is trying to install malware.
Although I said that these additions are not visible, the malicious type often subsequently shows up with the “this site is trying to install malware” alerts, from your browser or antivirus software. Modern day browsers now use “blacklists” of these hacked sites, to stop you visiting them.
Google and Yahoo both have “this site may harm your computer” notices next to search results, which extends their role as search engines beyond just giving you results. Google will also send you messages if the site is registered with Google Webmaster Tools.
As a search engine optimisation company, we have discovered both types of hacking in place on clients’ sites at various times, and it is something that we know can affect search engine ranking and traffic. (If you get the malware message next to your site on a Google search page, can you imaging what it does to your clickthroughs??). It is something we actively look for if there is an unexplained drop in rankings, and we developed an external link checking tool to help us and others check sites for insertions.
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