- The Situation
A Monday morning nightmare that nearly cost everything
An SEO agency in Manchester had spent 18 months building a relationship with their most valuable client, a £24,000 annual retainer for SEO and digital marketing services. On a Monday morning, that client called in a panic. Their WordPress site was down, defaced and flagged as dangerous by Google.
The agency had no WordPress developer on staff. Their previous freelancer was unavailable. Every hour the site was down was costing their client sales and damaging the SEO rankings the agency had spent months building.
- The Challenges
Client's WordPress site completely defaced and flagged as dangerous by Google Safe Browsing
No in-house WordPress developer and previous freelancer completely unavailable on a Monday morning
Every hour offline was destroying months of SEO work and costing the client direct revenue
£24,000 annual contract at immediate risk if the site could not be recovered quickly and professionally
- Our Approach
1
Immediate emergency response
Within 30 minutes of being contacted we had access to the site and began the malware assessment and containment process.
2
Full malware removal
Identified and removed all malicious files, backdoors and injected code. Cleaned the database and all theme and plugin files.
3
Hardening and protection
Installed enterprise security, changed all credentials, added two-factor authentication and deployed a web application firewall.
4
Google reconsideration and monitoring
Submitted Google Safe Browsing reconsideration request, confirmed removal from dangerous site list and set up 24/7 monitoring to prevent reinfection.