Malware is a type of software or script that is designed with malicious intentions to harm a website or web server. These vicious scripts can take control of a website’s back-end, database, and files, and often reproduce themselves, causing the wastage of valuable bandwidth and completely crashing the server. To make matters worse, these scripts can also destroy existing website files and even deface the website.
The damage caused by a malware attack can be extensive and long-lasting. A website may face defacement, which can lead to the loss of credibility and a drop in traffic. Sometimes, hackers can take complete control of a website and redirect its traffic to malicious sites, thereby causing immense harm to the website’s image.
Hackers can utilize backdoor access to create users accounts that can allow them unrestricted access to website files and databases and tamper with website files, delete important files, or completely wipe out the website. Malicious actors may also use backlink spamming through comments and SEO spamming by embedding spam content on the website to harm the website’s traffic. This can slow down the server and cause it to disconnect from the website’s database, causing it to go out of service.
