Help
Website hacked: what to do now
Foreign content on your website, visitors landing elsewhere, or Google warning about your site? This happens to small businesses and clubs too. Here is how to go about it.
Right away
- Tell your host or whoever looks after your website.
- Take the site offline if you can, or put it in maintenance mode.
- Save the current state and the logs before you change anything. They can serve as evidence.
Clean up
- Change all access details: website admin, hosting, FTP and database.
- Restore a clean backup from before the attack, or remove everything foreign.
- Close the hole: update the system, plugins and themes, and remove what you do not need.
A warning on Google
- Check the “Security issues” report in Google Search Console.
- Request a review there only once everything is fixed. For hacked spam this can take several weeks.
Report it
- Report it through the online police station of Schleswig-Holstein. Businesses, public bodies and associations can reach the Central Cybercrime Contact Point on +49 431 160 42727.
- If customer data or other personal data was affected, the data protection authority must generally be told within 72 hours (Art. 33 GDPR).
Sources and further help
- Google: “Security issues” report (opens in a new tab)
- Google: requesting a review (opens in a new tab)
- Police: Central Cybercrime Contact Points (German) (opens in a new tab)
- Online police station of Schleswig-Holstein (German) (opens in a new tab)
Last updated: 4 November 2026
Personal help
Stuck?
Silvra is based in Dithmarschen. Write to us about what happened. We read every report personally, help you assess the situation and, by arrangement, come to you. We cannot promise a fixed response time.