Security: What is Malware? How do I remove it?
In this article, we will discuss what our malware protection is and how it works.
Let’s start with what malware is…
Malware can present itself in a number of different ways, but at it’s core, it is malicious content that attempts to infect, annoy, or harm your web site visitors. There are many different types of malware and many different ways of it manifesting itself. Here are just a few technical examples…
- Hidden iFrames
- Phishing Attempts
- Cross Site Scripting
- Drive-by-downloads
- And many more…
Monitoring for these kinds of exploits can be very difficult to do by hand, if not impossible. As such, we’ve partnered with Website Security experts, Sucuri. Their expertise in the website security field is second to none. We offer their Malware scanning and removal service to help keep your site clean and secure.
Let’s talk about how our malware protection works…
Sucuri will scan your site every 12 hours to ensure it is free of any malware. If the scan detects malware, we immediately receive a notice and Sucuri will begin the cleanup process. At the same time, we will send you a notification that malware was found and what we are doing to remedy the situation.
Please Note: The only thing that is excluded in our cleanup process is updating your scripts (WordPress, Joomla, etc.). This is because it could cause problems if you have made custom changes to your site.
Common Questions
How often do you scan my site?
Sucuri scans your site every 12 hours to check for malware.
How would you notify me if you found something?
If malware is detected, Sucuri will start the cleanup process immediately. At the same time, we will open a ticket (this also sends an email to you) and inform you of the discovery and the steps we are taking to fix any infections.
What is the turnaround time to remove the malware?
This depends on how infected your site has become. In most situations we can have your site back to pristine condition within a few hours.
How can I keep malware from infecting my site?
In a majority of cases, the malware gets planted when scripts (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.) are not kept up to date.
For more information about best practice methods to keep your hosting account secure, please see the following link…
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment here, or you can work with our support team directly by opening a ticket through Backstage.
If you would like to add malware protection to your website, please click here.
salah ahmed November 12, 2013 at 3:30 am
Do this service include code vulnerabilities, sql injection ,Mass Attack Prevention
regards
James Davey November 12, 2013 at 9:03 am
Hello Salah,
The malware protection service we offer will routinely scan your site, and check on code vulnerabilities, yes. It will check the code and flag any malicious content, and alert us immediately to begin cleaning things up. Unfortunately, it cannot (at this time) check into your database, but most often this results in code in your php files as well, which would get flagged.
samir December 25, 2013 at 11:38 am
Won’t there be any performance issue if the site is scanned every 3 hours? If I update the the CMS Regularly than do I have to use this services?
James Davey December 30, 2013 at 8:21 am
Hi Samir,
The scan is not resource-heavy at all, and we have seen no issues with this. If you update the CMS regularly, you’re already well ahead in terms of site security. The malware scan service is not necessary, by any means, but it does add another layer of protection, which is always a good thing.
Wine Dine February 15, 2014 at 2:54 pm
Would the files or sections in files be autmatically removed?
James Davey February 18, 2014 at 8:08 am
Hello,
When we get the malware alert, a member of our support team goes to work on cleaning things up for you. The malicious content will either be cleaned or disabled for you.
Char June 21, 2014 at 3:06 pm
Hi,
In my honest opinion this service should be complementary for Reseller Plans owners.
Just my opinion.
C
James Davey June 23, 2014 at 7:20 am
Hi Char,
We did look into that, but it would not be feasible to do so. If this were the case, we would either need to raise the cost of the reseller plans, or stop offering them altogether. This way, only those customers who wish to use the Malware Protection service incur any extra fees, and only as many as they choose.
Tom July 23, 2014 at 11:55 pm
Does the Sucuri plan offer their firewall service?
I think it’s called CloudProxy Web Application Firewall.
Thanks.
James Davey July 24, 2014 at 7:16 am
Hi Tom,
No, this covers scanning your site code for malware only.
Akhil June 12, 2015 at 5:20 am
Hi.
Will malware spread via images?
Thanks.
Akhil
James Davey June 12, 2015 at 8:11 am
Hello Akhil,
It’s rare, but it certainly can happen. It’s far easier to spread this through other means, but you should always be cautious anyway :)
paul July 14, 2016 at 1:11 pm
Can Sucuri work at the same time as WordFence? We have a premium wordFence account too.
Corey Mahon July 18, 2016 at 12:49 pm
Hi Paul!
There should be no problems using WordFence with Sucuri. Sucuri scans your account on a regular interval and reports malicious files. We have not yet heard of any conflicts where WordFence files are found as false positives so, you should be safe using both. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you notice any problems and we’ll be glad to help out!