Expert: Brian Benosky - 8/14/2008

Question
Dear Brian, I discovered the other day that malware had infected my website when my Trend Micro PC-cillin caught both a spyware and a trojan trying to download onto my computer from my own website. I have no idea how my website was hacked, but I contacted my hosting company (GLOBAT.COM) on CHAT and they agreed to clean the site. I normally FTP my files from my home computer or laptop to my website, but occasionally go the other way (e.g. if the website was updated from my laptop rather than desktop).

My question is, now that the site is cleaned, how do I keep it that way? Is there any software that cleans one's website? Most of the programs I know are for cleaning desktop or laptop computers (e.g. McAfee, Norton, Trend Micro PC-cillin) but which programs can actually go in and clean YOUR WEBSITE? I have hunted around on the internet but cannot find anywhere where they tell a webmaster how to clean Malware.

There is a Google Malware Removal program but apparently you can't trigger it from the Google Webmasters Group (which I joined) unless Google has identified your site as having malware already.

I'd like a program that can FTP in and clean my site for me.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

Answer
Hi Lorraine

Unfortunately, there is no program that you can use to protect your site.  If you were a merchant running a business web site, you could have your site certified by paying a security company such as HackerSafe, which will monitor your site.  The bottom line is that it is the web hosting companies responsibility to keep your site safe.  Your site is hosted on their servers, so if an infection occurs, it could affect thousands of sites running on their servers.  It behooves them to maintain an infection-free infrastructure.  The best that you can do is monitor your site frequently, such as you have, and notify Globat of any threats.  Hope this helps.

Brian