Malware or malicious software is software designed to harm a computer, device system, or device network or to seize partial control of its functionality and operation. As one of the main risks, it also attempts to access your personal and confidential information, which represents a major issue for your credit union website.
Malware can take numerous forms, including viruses, adware, Trojan horses, ransomware, worms, and spyware. Malware of any kind is designed to jeopardize the security of the devices frequenting your credit union website and the data stored on them. This may allow cybercriminals to gain access to personal information and, in certain situations, use it to perpetrate identity theft.
Recognizing Malware on Your Credit Union Website
In essence, malware is used by cybercriminals to target both small and large legitimate credit union websites. Poorly protected websites are their primary target since they are easy to infect. There are several ways to infect credit union websites. They distribute malware through visiting malicious websites, phishing, source code tampering, backdoors, drive-by downloads, and disguised plugins.
Some obvious indicators of an infected credit union website include the following symptoms:
- Your website has been disabled by your hosting provider
- Your website has been banned by web browsers
- Google warns you about your website
- Your website is sending emails all by itself
- On your website, you see suspicious files, folders, and code
- Visitors to your website are being diverted to illegitimate or inappropriate websites
- The cyber criminal has defaced or disabled your website
Finding and Removing Malware From Your Credit Union Website
Finding Malware
Advanced and sophisticated infections will not always show readily obvious signs. They are tough to identify since the culprits will want to go unnoticed for as long as possible in order to continue their malicious efforts. There are several techniques available to identify malware. Google’s Google Safe Browsing Site Status diagnostic tool is one of the well-known tools.
Google has put in place robust Safe Browsing technology that constantly scans URLs for harmful information. Both large and small genuine credit union websites are attacked and infiltrated with malware, compromising them. Google keeps a list of hacked websites, so to detect malware on your website, utilize Google’s diagnostic tool.
Removing Malware
If the malware detection tools have confirmed the occurrence of malware, the first step is to change all passwords linked to the website. As a general rule, maintain a strict password policy. If you can interact with code, you can search the website for viruses. Cybercriminals typically target .php files, .htaccess files, and media files, inserting malicious URLs in base64 encoded mode. Examine these files for any unlawful code.
However, your credit union website protection does not stop with malware eradication; it is also advisable to use the services of specialists who regularly monitor and safeguard the website.
A website that is contaminated loses reputation, credibility, visitors, clients, and thus the business. It is critical to keep your website’s reputation intact. Use a powerful website virus removal and protection tool to safeguard your website.
Avoiding Malware on Your Credit Union Website
Here are a few tips that will show you how to avoid malware on your credit union website and that will help you protect it from hackers and cybercriminals.
Scan Your Site Regularly
The first recommendation we have for you is to scan your site for possible malware on a regular basis. You may search your entire site for potential vulnerabilities, viruses, and altered files, and to see if your site has been banned by employing a scanning service. Furthermore, you will be able to spot potential vulnerabilities because this function will flag site issues and obsolete software so you can act quickly and correct them before hackers exploit them.
Take Regular Backups
Regularly taking backups of your credit union website is another strategy to safeguard it against malware because a backup assures that you can easily revert your site to its pre-virus state. It should be emphasized that your backups should be maintained offsite to ensure that you always have access to them in the event that your hosting provider is compromised due to a security breach or a power outage.
Upgrade Your Hosting Plan
If you’re currently utilizing a shared hosting plan, consider switching to a hosting security that includes a managed hosting plan or a hosting plan designed specifically for business websites, such as a VPS or Dedicated server. While more complex hosting plans are typically more expensive, they also include additional security features that can help keep your credit union website secure. These features often include 24-hour security monitoring, a firewall, SSL certificates, and other components.
Use SSL and HTTPS
Previously, only e-commerce sites were needed to switch to HTTPS. Nowadays, HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) is suggested for all websites unless you want search engines to display a security warning when someone attempts to visit them. HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP that encrypts all communication between a visitor’s browser and your website. HTTPS is enabled once an SSL certificate is installed on your site and is shown by a green padlock or a green bar in your web browser’s address bar.
Use and Enforce Secure Passwords
If you want to make a hacker’s life more difficult, use strong and secure passwords across all of your online accounts and profiles. Many of us, however, are culpable of reusing the very same password or using a password that is far too simple to guess. Your password should ideally be longer than 8 characters and contain a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, symbols, and special characters. However, creating a unique password and then remembering it is difficult, which is why you should consider using a password manager.
