Malware Scanning and Removal

If your site is infected with malware — defacement, redirects, injected spam, or backdoor scripts — act quickly. The longer you wait, the more your search rankings, email deliverability, and visitor trust degrade. Here is what to do.

Confirm the infection

Before assuming the worst, verify:

• Check Google Safe Browsing for your domain.
• Open your site in an incognito window and look for unexpected redirects, popup ads, or scripts.
• Run a free scan at sitecheck.sucuri.net — it identifies most common infections.

Take the site offline (briefly)

While you clean up, prevent further damage:

1. Sign in to cPanel.
2. Use IP Blocker to block all but your own IP, or temporarily set the document root to a static "under maintenance" page.

Restore from a clean backup

The fastest fix for most infections is to restore from a backup taken before the compromise:

1. Open cPanel → Backup Wizard.
2. Choose Restore and select a backup from a date you are confident is clean.
3. After restore, immediately:
   • Change every password (cPanel, email, FTP, database, CMS admin).
   • Update your CMS, themes, and plugins to the latest versions.
   • Remove any unused plugins or themes.

Manual cleanup

If you have no clean backup:

1. Run a server-side scan (cPanel includes Imunify360 or ImunifyAV on most plans).
2. Review the scan results — Imunify quarantines infected files and offers one-click cleanup.
3. Inspect any modified core CMS files (compare with a fresh download).
4. Check the database for injected scripts in posts, comments, and theme options.
5. Re-enable the site only when scans come back clean.

Request expert cleanup

If the cleanup is too involved, our team offers a paid malware-removal service. Open a support ticket and we will quote and complete the cleanup.

Prevent reinfection

• Keep your CMS, themes, and plugins fully up to date.
• Use strong, unique passwords on every entry point.
• Enable 2FA on all admin accounts.
• Install a security plugin (Wordfence for WordPress).
• Set up scheduled backups so a clean snapshot is always one click away.