3 Signs Of A Hacked Website Control Panel

Ever have your server hacked? It’s truly a nightmare. It is even worse when someone manages to get into your control panel software, where they can change every setting that has to do with your site(s).

Here are some signs that your CPanel may be under attack:

Mysterious Users

If a user appears and you have no clue how it got there, chances are someone is doing something they should be. No matter what, contact your web host and let them know what happened immediately.

One (uncommon) thing that can happen is the server has a glitch and makes a new user for you instead of for the person that requested it. I had that happen at one host a few years back, and boy was that a nice surprise at 2 am.

Huh? I Can’t Connect To MySQL Anymore!

If for some bizarre reason WordPress can’t connect to your MySQL server anymore and no one else has access to your site’s cpanel or files and you haven’t recently done any updates to your content management system, contact your webhost immediately! If someone got in, chances are they have an access log of what they did, and chances are they will gladly send in a bug report for their control panel software if it is at fault.

Actually, if any passwords mysteriously change contact your host right away. That shouldn’t happen!

“Death To The Civilized World”? Huh?

It is a sad truth that this is a dangerous time for computer security. Administrators need to worry about script kiddies, professional hackers, and terrorists - especially terrorists! There have been numerous cases of terrorists hacking people’s servers and using them to launch attacks.

Chances are they will use a flaw in your FTP server to get in, but they can also get in through flaws in your CPanel. Either way, if someone hacks their way inside, your webhost is probably already working on getting your site back up, but you should still ask them just in case they haven’t a clue what happened.

Just look for anything out of place. A chunk of text here, a mysterious page there… whatever.

There are probably hundreds of little signs you should be looking for, but these are three that I see pop up on forums and are from my own experience.

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