Deceptive Website Warning: Recovering a non-profit's hacked website
Client Background:
Community Care Auto Repair is a 501(c)3 Non-Profit in my hometown of Ponca City, OK.
CCAR organizes volunteers to provide free labor for auto repairs to help low to moderate-income people and families.
The Challenge
CCAR's website had been hit with the dreaded "Dangerous Site" red screen "Deceptive Website Warning" and was labeled unsafe.
The Cause of the Dangerous Site Warning
The website was a bit dated having been built years ago.
It used a PHP contact form script which was hijacked (probably through header injection but I don't want to get too geeky here).
Recovering the Website
After being approached by the CCAR team to help fix the issue, I knew I wanted to do what I could to help such a great cause.
I teamed up with them to build a new website that would be responsive on all devices and include full security.
With all of their great work and volunteering, I could certainly volunteer my expertise to help on the website end.
(I'm much better at fixing websites than I am at fixing cars.)
Steps to Recover and Replace a Compromised Website and Dangerous Site Warning
- Get access to the Domain Hosting Account
- Edit the domain name servers to point to the new host and new website.
- Design and upload the new website to the new hosting servers.
- Add the domain in Google Search Console and fill out the request to review the site after all problems have been fixed. Specify what corrective steps and updates were completed.
Notes: You could just correct the issue(s). In this case, I could have deleted and swapped out the old php contact form with a secure new version but we wanted a major site refresh anyway. It was time for a new updated, responsive site.
New Website Up and Running
Perfect timing. From Red Screen Warning to all new website in 7 days
This project couldn't have timed out better!
I was in the midst of 2 big projects but was held up on both waiting on different things from my clients.
This gave me some free time to recover and rebuild the CCAR website as a volunteer project.
These folks do great work in the community so I wanted to chip in and help.
I donated the labor and the annual hosting and maintenance.
Todd did a fantastic job of bringing Community Care Auto Repair's compromised website, that gave viewers the dreaded "red screen" of warning to an updated, attractive site, with thoughtful additions to the site. He was able to get us up and running quickly and never left me in the dark about the process. An added bonus is that there are security measures on his hosting site. If you need a website designer & host, I highly recommend Todd.
Pam W.
Community Care Auto Repair, Inc.
Before the project, I didn’t even know we had such a neat non-profit here in town doing this work!
Great people providing a great service for others here in our community!
Check out www.ccarrepair.org
And if you're in the Ponca City area, maybe think of volunteering.
A big thanks to my list of clients for their continued support which allows me to do occasional pro bono projects like this!
Feel free to reach out to me anytime if you need help with your website. I'm here to help!
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