Your Joomla Site Has Been Hacked. Here Is What to Do.
If your Joomla website has been compromised — you are seeing spam, redirects, a suspended account, or a Google warning — you need to act fast. The longer a hacked site stays online, the more damage it does to your SEO, your reputation, and your hosting account.
We are a London-based Joomla specialist with over 14 years of experience. We have recovered dozens of hacked Joomla sites and can typically begin work within 12 hours of your first contact.
Signs Your Joomla Site Has Been Hacked
If any of the following apply, your site has almost certainly been compromised:
- Your hosting company has suspended your account
- Google shows a "This site may be hacked" warning in search results
- Visitors are being redirected to unrelated websites
- You are seeing Japanese, Chinese or pharmaceutical spam in your pages
- Your homepage has been replaced or defaced
- Google Search Console is showing security alerts
- You are receiving complaints about spam emails coming from your domain
How Joomla Sites Get Hacked
The most common causes are outdated Joomla core files, outdated extensions and plugins, compromised FTP or admin passwords, and insecure hosting environments. Joomla itself is a secure platform — the vulnerability is almost always an unmaintained installation.
This is exactly why we offer Joomla maintenance contracts — prevention is far cheaper than recovery.
What We Do {#how-it-works}
Step 1 — Emergency lock-down We immediately restrict access to your site to prevent further damage while we investigate.
Step 2 — Full malware scan We scan every file on your server, cross-reference against clean Joomla core files, and identify every infected, modified or injected file.
Step 3 — Malware and file removal We remove all malicious PHP files, scripts, backdoors and injected code. We restore Joomla's core files from a clean installation.
Step 4 — Database cleanup We scan your database for SQL injections, spam links and hidden redirects and remove them.
Step 5 — Password and credential reset We change your Joomla admin, FTP and database passwords and remove any unauthorised admin accounts the hacker may have created.
Step 6 — Security hardening We update Joomla to the latest version, update all extensions and plugins, tighten file permissions, and add additional security measures to prevent a repeat attack.
Step 7 — Google blacklist removal If your site has been flagged by Google, we submit a review request once the site is clean and liaise with your hosting company to get any suspension lifted.
Step 8 — Test and sign-off We test your site in multiple security scanners and confirm it is clean before handing back access.
What We Charge
Hacked site recovery is priced based on the severity of the attack and the size of your installation. Most clean-up jobs are completed within 24 hours of us gaining access.
Get in touch with a brief description of what you are seeing and we will come back to you with a quote — usually within a few hours.
Prevent It Happening Again
Once your site is clean, the best way to stop it happening again is a maintenance contract. We monitor your site, keep Joomla and all extensions updated, take regular backups, and respond fast if anything goes wrong.
Find out about our maintenance contracts →
Get Emergency Help Now
Fill in our contact form and tell us what you are seeing and we will get back to you as quickly as possible — typically within 12 hours, often much sooner.
