Top Google Rankings Exploited/Ruined by Adult Keywords - Double check yours

I had a client site ranking among top 1-3 spots for several related keywords and this site was enjoying these rankings for several years. Recently, someone exploited some unsecured part of the website and installed some malicious javascript/redirects as backdoors to some adult/porn sites on it - the site started getting search referrals for top adult keywords - this lasted for a few days without our knowledge but the site lost its top rankings for its keywords which alerted us and when we checked the site closely, we found out the reason - of course, we are working to get it back to its desired spot and will get back our rankings soon (if anyone has been in such a similar spot, feel free to share your experience if you want) but I wanted to alert everyone who enjoys top google rankings in their industry/niche to look out closely for porn related keywords in their logs (if yours is a friendly-family sites) and double check your site's security settings so that you can secure your top google rankings for a long time without any worries

 

Thanks for the info , is this related to the juice site you are working on?

 

no, a different site

 

Hmm.. Is it times to check your stats regularly?

 

the site started getting search referrals for top adult keywords - I have seen this thing in couple sites of mine and was confused why i get searches for this :|
Does that mean a complete check is needed

 

Thanks for sharing the information,was unaware of it.

 

of course, it is always good to check the stats anytime

the reason seems to be that google themed the site with adult queries and hence the site is no longer relevant for the niche it was meant for

 

can you tell us how they got in there? was it a windows or linux server? etc.

 

it was on linux shared hosting - some files had their permissions wrong.

 

that means we must check our site security and statics evey day and every hour

 

not 24x7 but a periodic check doesn't hurt

 

Those damn Microsoft people, always leaving security holes wide open...

 

this time, Microsoft wasn't to be blamed

 

Could you be a bit more specific about how this website was exploited so that we know where to look for the problem?

 

This is becoming quite common nowadays hackers and spammers are everywhere...

 

1. check for iframes in your source code, javascript, hidden words or text.
2. websites can be exploited by unsecured comments systems, forums, guest books or anything that displays user submitted data that is not correctly handled.
3. some scripts use config files that they include, make sure these are not chmod to 777. any script with those settings is very dangerous.
4. make sure all your passwords are strong, when using cms or blogging software do not post with a admin account instead create a new user and use that.
5. keep your scripts and server up to date.

 

i dont know if this is coincidence, but my Britney Spears fansite which was ranking page number 4 for Britney Spears keyword now ranks on page 14 and it ranks page one for Britney Spears Naked. I cant find anything in the code.
Can u help me out to check if there is anything wrong?

 

You should sell your story to them for a few million. They keep talking about how secure they are; a real-world example would be gold.

Do you develop static html files on your local machine and then upload them, or do you have a server-based CMS? I've been writing an FTP upload client and site management app, and I wonder if a good feature might be to make it request a document from the server and compare it to the one on the local system, looking for differences, especially external links on the server but not your computer. I created the thing to save myself time, and I would hate to get hacked like that, so I might do that...

 

i would just want to say thanks to onedollar for making this thread and making us aware of the security of our sites..

 

I have some what similar problem for a while :: let me explain

2-3 days back i searched for my keyword on google and after getting the results when i clicked on that result( of my site) i was directed toa porn site ....but if i open if directely from a browser its okay but from google it is redirected but today all the sites are redirected to a porn site and again if i open them directly they are okay >