Removing malicious code & securing your site
“Most ‘automated’ malware cleaners leave hidden backdoors. My team and I manually audit your file structure to ensure the infection is gone for good. We don’t just clean the site; we harden the front door so hackers don’t come back in tomorrow. Through 20+ years of combatting WP hacking activities across hundreds of websites, my personal experience is that once a site has been hacked, it is often attacked again and again…”
This may be part of an orchestrated campaign of harassment, paid for by an unscrupulous competitor.
Website Compromised? What we can do for you…
If your WP site is seriously compromised, we can help. Has it been hacked and infected with malware, virus, phishing code or defaced?
Order our fast professional WordPress website repair package. We can fix a hacked website fast and will usually resolve your issues TODAY or overnight!
Web security becomes more of an issue each year that goes by. There is a relentless ongoing global attack by hackers intent on inserting malware and/or phishing software into sites owned by unsuspecting businesses.
The consequences of that can be severe and may include blocks by search engines such as Google, blacklisting on anti-spam sites, and eviction from your hosting company’s web server!
Nefarious code removal
Thousands of web pages are hacked every day, with a multitude of intentions behind their efforts. The hacker’s objectives include;
- Defacement, damage or deletion of your website.
- Theft of personal data
- Redirection of your traffic to other sites
- Installing a malicious code and/or phishing mechanism that will cause your visitors to divulge personal data
- Monitoring emails to intercept payments
The Clean Website
Guarantee
Full backup prior to any work
Documented malware removal process
Documented intrusion prevention steps
Post-work backup to secure cloud storage
Comprehensive report for the site owner
If you get hacked, you want the situation resolved ASAP and restored to the previously healthy status. That’s part and parcel of our full-service WordPress management services.
“My WordPress website is hacked, what should I do?”
Rule #1 – don’t panic!
Panic is a common reaction, but you can’t fix a hacked website when you’re not thinking clearly… Tackling an uncertain situation with insufficient information or expertise may well make the situation worse.
However, you do need rapid intervention to remedy the issue, before any of the monitoring agencies detect the infection and blacklist you.
When your site has been infected, access to it may be blocked by your hosting company as soon as their filters discover it. It may also be red-flagged (or blocked) by web browsers with alarming alert messages guaranteed to drive away potential customers:
- Chrome: “The Website Ahead Contains Malware!”
- Firefox: “Reported Attack Site!”
- Internet Explorer: “This website has been reported as unsafe”
- Safari: “Warning: Visiting this site may harm your computer”
- Opera: “Fraud Warning”
It may be blocked in search engines;
- Google: “This site may harm your computer” or “This site may harm your device”
- Yahoo: “Warning: Hacking Risks”
Repair services for broken or breached websites
If you urgently need to remove malware, we provide one of the best WordPress malicious code removal assistance to clean infected WP sites. We will clean and restore your hacked site at a fair cost with a 6 months guarantee.
I provide a complete security solution that includes:
Along with the implementation of remedial measures that should prevent future cyber attacks from being successful, such as:
Affordable Costs – suitable for businesses of all sizes! My security solutions and scanning packages fit small to medium-sized business budgets.
Don’t Risk Being Blacklisted by Google or other checking agencies
Most sites will lose 95% of traffic when they are blacklisted by Google and others. We’ll detect and remove threats, resolve issues and provide unlimited clean-up. If your site has been infected with spam or malware code attacks, we safely remove the code and quickly repair the damage.
The service I provide is quite different to that proved by other security consultants in that once your site is cleaned;
- I implement a Web Firewall AND Brute Force Login Protection to stop your site from being hacked again!
- I provide a 6-month guarantee that in the unlikely event that another hacking occurs, I fix the site for free!
Why automated security plugins often fail.
The most significant failure of automated security plugins lies in their inability to detect and mitigate business logic vulnerabilities. Traditional security flaws, such as SQL injection (SQLi) or Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), typically follow recognisable syntax patterns that scanners are programmed to identify. Business logic flaws, however, involve the legitimate use of an application’s features in a way that results in a negative outcome for the organisation. Because these exploits use the application’s own logic against it, automated tools often view the malicious behaviour as standard user interaction.
Logic flaws are essentially behavioural quirks. Detecting them requires an understanding of the business domain, which automated software fundamentally lacks. For example, a scanner can detect if a field is vulnerable to code injection, but it cannot know that an e-commerce workflow should prevent a user from applying two different coupons that were never intended to be combined. Similarly, if a fund transfer mechanism fails to check for negative values, an attacker could transfer a negative amount to effectively “withdraw” funds from the system. The syntax of the request is perfect; the logic of the request is malicious.
The most effective security posture is achieved by combining both approaches—using automated tools for continuous monitoring and “hygiene,” while utilising periodic manual testing for high-stakes applications and business logic verification. Relying exclusively on automated plugins creates a “security ceiling” that the most sophisticated attackers can easily bypass.
Moving Beyond Automation
The failure of automated security plugins is not necessarily a failure of the technology itself, but a failure of the “set-and-forget” philosophy. The 2024-2025 security landscape shows that vulnerabilities are increasing in volume and complexity, with a 34% rise in new security flaws discovered in the WordPress ecosystem in 2024 alone. With 92% of successful breaches originating from plugins and themes, the security of these extensible components is the paramount challenge of the modern CMS.
To address the limitations of automated security, organisations must move toward a layered defense-in-depth strategy. This involves not only the deployment of WAFs and malware scanners but also the implementation of virtual patching, continuous activity logging, and robust user training. Security is an ongoing process of maintenance and vigilance, not a single product installation.
Comprehensive Security Posture Checklist
- Virtual Patching and Vulnerability Management: Use services that offer virtual patching to block known exploits at the WAF level before they hit the server.
- Behavioral Monitoring: Implement activity logs (like WP Activity Log) to detect compromised accounts based on unusual behavior rather than just failed login attempts.
- Strict Access Controls: Deploy 2FA and passkeys (biometric verification) to secure the login page against AI-driven brute force attacks.
- Plugin Hygiene: Delete unused plugins entirely rather than just deactivating them; inactive plugins can still contain unpatched vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit.
- Employee Training: Only 27% of organizations implement team training, yet human interaction remains the largest risk factor in cybersecurity breaches.
- Incident Response Planning: Develop a clear breach recovery plan; organizations that can identify and contain a breach quickly significantly reduce the financial impact.
The fundamental lesson from the failure of automated security plugins is that technology alone cannot replace professional judgment and proactive management. As threats become more sophisticated and automated, the human element in cybersecurity—the ability to understand context, identify logic flaws, and manage operational fatigue—becomes more critical than ever before.
More information: WP security & how to stop hackers
If you need help, contact NZ’s best WordPress consultant
“Hackers don’t just leave through the front door; they leave dozens of hidden entrances. I manually audit your code to make sure they’re locked out for good.”
Ben Kemp
References
- Sucuri – how to clean hacked WordPress/
- Hostinger – WordPress-malware-removal
- AskWPgirl – 10 steps to remove malware
