Title: Cleaning up hacks
Last modified: April 25, 2023

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# Cleaning up hacks

 *  [backyarder1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/backyarder1/)
 * (@backyarder1)
 * [3 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cleaning-up-hacks/)
 * This is an ongoing problem that I am still trying to cleanup but I don’t have
   the knowledge or skills to do it. Someone got into the wordpress files on my 
   hosted account and they are somehow using my domain name to redirect people to
   other articles that aren’t actually on my site. If I look at my statcounter listings,
   it shows entries through my domain name to subdirectries that I never created.
   For example, today there is an entry that says [http://www.freelancephilanthropist.com/housing-connect/scientific-secrets-for-a-powerful-memory.pdf](http://www.freelancephilanthropist.com/housing-connect/scientific-secrets-for-a-powerful-memory.pdf)
   
   I never created a directory called housing-connect and I don’t know how to search
   through all of the subdirectories using file manager on my host site to find 
   it. There were other bogus subdirectories and I was able to find some of them.
   Not sure if this makes sense but I’m hoping someone can help me.Also, how can
   they get into my account ON my hosting platform to make these changes?
 * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fcleaning-up-hacks%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
   to see the link]_

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  Moderator [threadi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/threadi/)
 * (@threadi)
 * [3 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cleaning-up-hacks/#post-16686480)
 * Make a scan of your project with Wordfence: [https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/)
 * If you think the gateway is your hosting, contact your hoster’s support to clarify.
   You should also change your access data everywhere, of course.
 * If the project is compromised, I would recommend to make a clean backup AND change
   all credentials. I would not recommend a cleanup of such projects because you
   will never find everything that is infected and you will always have to clean
   up after it.
 * Also check out this article regarding securing WordPress projects:
 * > [Hardening WordPress](https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/hardening-wordpress/)
 *  Thread Starter [backyarder1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/backyarder1/)
 * (@backyarder1)
 * [3 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cleaning-up-hacks/#post-16686567)
 * Thanks. I already have wordfence on the site. And the article is probably helpful
   but might be above my head. Looks like WAY more work than I want to do myself
   so I might see if I can hire someone to help me out. I’m just a blogger, not 
   a wordpress guru. LOL
   I appreciate you answer though.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Cleaning up hacks’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [Hackers](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/hackers/)
 * [redirect](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/redirect/)

 * In: [Everything else WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/miscellaneous/)
 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [backyarder1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/backyarder1/)
 * Last activity: [3 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cleaning-up-hacks/#post-16686567)
 * Status: not resolved

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