Welcome to TalkGraphics.com
Results 1 to 4 of 4
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Los Angeles
    Posts
    945

    Default Advice on fixing a hacked web site

    A while ago I took over support of a web site designed using Joomla! Last Friday the web site was hacked. When I contacted the ISP I was told "we don't support Joomla! sites". I tried doing a restore that failed and contacted the ISP again. This time he ran a scan on the web site for malware and gave me a list of files I should remove. As that list was pages long I gave up on that. Our President got email from sitelock.com telling him that the site was hacked and offering to help. Apparently that is a legitimate company.
    As of now I haven't done anything else. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how should proceed?

    Thanks
    Grace
    http://gracehjs.com/
    Xara Software XDP11

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Kildare, Ireland
    Posts
    906

    Default Re: Advice on fixing a hacked web site

    I have no experience with joomla but my general advice would be change all passwords associated with the site, joomla, database, especially ftp passwords. If you had a local copy of the clean joomla files on your computer you could do a file compare or look for files that shouldn't be there or with a recent modified date to identify hacked files then fix or replace them. Removing them if they're part of joomla would break functionality. But as you took the site over maybe you might not have a clean copy of the files locally. So then it might be better to do a fresh clean install of joomla and let it use the database of the old install and then delete the old install completely to make sure any hacked files are gone. No idea about sitelock but strange if you got an email out of the blue after the site is hacked, maybe they scan the web for hacked sites or the host directed them but still seems a bit questionable.

    edit: also you would need to consider any theme files or legitimate joomla mods that may have been made to the site originally if you were going the clean install route.
    XT-CMS - a self-hosted CMS for Xara Designers - Xara + CMS Demo with blog & ecommerce shopping cart system.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Los Angeles
    Posts
    945

    Default Re: Advice on fixing a hacked web site

    I pay to have backups made on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. But doing a restore this time just did not work. As for sitelock, I asked the ISP and they said it is part of the package I have, so it is legitimate. My knowledge of Joomla! is minimal, so I really don't want to go there. The guy who built the website in the first place is currently not answering my emails.
    Grace
    http://gracehjs.com/
    Xara Software XDP11

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Harwich, Essex, England
    Posts
    21,895

    Default Re: Advice on fixing a hacked web site

    Long time since I used Joomla Grace, but from the sound of it, as sitelock is part of your package it would do no harm contacting them.
    Egg

    Intel i7 - 4790K Quad Core + 16 GB Ram + NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1660 Graphics Card + MSI Optix Mag321 Curv monitor
    + Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB SSD + 232 GB SSD + 250 GB SSD portable drive + ISP = BT + Web Hosting = TSO Host

 

 

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •