What is Malware Scanner?

Keeping your site protected automatically with Malware Scanner at Hostinger

Updated over a week ago

What is Malware?

Malicious software, commonly referred to as malware, is a type of software or application created with the aim of damaging applications, computers, and networks.

Malware often modifies system files and/or creates new files, which can:

  • Make your website slow or unresponsive by using exceeded resources of the hosting plan

  • Redirect your website (or its specific pages) to other, usually illegal websites

  • Provoke different website errors

  • Stole confidential or sensitive information from your website (like passwords)

In general, malware is used for illegal purposes. If you want to learn more about malware, check this video:

To keep your website safe, our Web and Cloud hosting plans include a Malware Scanner.

How to Use the Malware Scanner

Malware Scanner is an automated tool integrated into hPanel that scans your websites for harmful or compromised files.

To find out how it works, go to Websites Manage, search on the left sidebar for Malware Scanner, and click on it:

The Malware Scanner menu option
  • If no malware was found, this section will display your hosting plan’s name and the time that has passed since the last detection:

The Malware Scanner showing that no malware is found
  • In case the Malware Scanner has detected any suspicious files, it will show the number of cases detected and cleaned in the period of time, as well as a summary with the following information:

The Malware Scanner detection and cleanup report
  1. Discovered malware – the total of harmful and compromised files encountered during the last scan

  2. Actions taken – shows the number of files that were either removed or cleaned. Only files created by the malware are deleted. For cleaned files, only the corrupted parts are removed

  3. Malware timeline – the record of all malware discoveries in the last 30 days

  4. Show details – opens a section with the list of compromised and malicious files detected, the actions taken, and their location:

The Malware Scanner detail including date, file name, malware type, actions taken and path

The best part of Malware Scanner is that it runs automatically, keeping you protected at all times 💪

Even when Malware Scanner is there for you, keeping basic security measures is still recommended. You can find a detailed list of best practices here: How to Protect Your Account and Websites.

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