12 Jan 2024
From one day to another, your web host informs you that your WordPress website was sending spam and has been taken offline until the issue is resolved.
This happens weekly with WordPress websites, and it is the only way for the web host to protect the server and all other customers from the problems caused by a website that sends spam.
Why the Web Host Took Your Website Offline
When your website sends spam, the IP address from which the spam emails originate gets reported and blacklisted by companies that filter emails.
Once the IP address is reported, emails from that IP address will no longer be delivered.
This means that all customers on the server with that IP address can be affected.
Therefore, a web host acts swiftly and takes a website offline until you have removed all spam files.
The Steps You Need to Take
Of course, you want your website back online as soon as possible. This means you need to remove the spam files from the server.
However, simply removing the files solves the immediate issue. You haven’t addressed the root cause yet.
Thus, you need to update all possible plugins, your theme, and your WordPress core to close any potential vulnerabilities and prevent the spam files from appearing on your server again.
In many cases, unfortunately, it’s a bit more complicated to thoroughly clean the server as the vulnerabilities have been exploited to insert backdoors into your uploads folders, which you also need to remove. You can do this by deleting all PHP files from the uploads folders since they should only contain media files such as images, videos, and PDFs.
The Database
Some vulnerabilities grant access to the database, where backdoors can be created. This could include new administrator accounts or javascript injected into the content.
Therefore, you also need to carefully inspect the database.
WPbeveiligen, the Solution to All Your Worries
As you can see, there are many things to address before your web host can put your website back online.
For many, the easiest solution has been to contact us and let us handle all of these matters.
We also ensure that your website is removed from the blacklist and communicate with your web host to get your website back online as quickly as possible.
Let us recover and secure your WordPress website!
