A colleague of ours was posting their website on multiple social media outlets, and upon clicking the link, we were redirected to different sites. We mentioned this to them, and they said they would check it out and do a scan of their site. The colleague then reported back to us that the site was clean and had no issues.
A few days later, another post was published, and sure enough, same issue. HostGator, our colleague’s website host, said it was clean and they did another virus scan. We asked them if we could throw up our malware protection software to see if it would pick up malware and clean it. As soon as we installed our software on the site, it immediately found three malware issues, one of which was a redirect script. Our software was able to remove the script and hopefully fix this issue once and for all.
Now the question is, did HostGator really run a scan, or are they lying? Obviously, we have no idea. Maybe they just did a surface scan and did not go into the depths of the site and find the malware, but this is the type of issue that can persist if your site is not fully protected. The colleague did have her site backed up, and the plugins are on auto updates, so what caused this issue? It could have been a multitude of things, but our concern is that HostGator’s “virus” scan does NOT do a deep enough scan to find these types of issues. If they did, then wouldn’t they have found this script and cleaned it?
For a “budget” host, they are an ok option, but this leaves a very sour taste in our mouth due to the fact that the site was indeed infected, and they simply just said “it’s clean”.
At H Grant Designs, we can help mitigate these types of issues and clean up malware on your site to help protect your website and the users who might frequent your site.