There are individuals out there that find hacking your site or anyone else’s website and placing information that you site has been hacked up. They feel it’s a challenge. A game.

Most web hosts provide routine scanning for exploits, but sometimes the hacker can get into your site because your personal PC or Mac has no anti-virus software, spyware or a firewall. You also need to continually update your anti-virus definitions and run spyware. You may have unwittingly downloaded a trojan or a backdoor so they can get to the information they need on your computer and/or record your keystrokes.

If your site gets hacked change all of the passwords to the site and every single password to financial information (banking, PayPal, credit card processor, etc.). And do it from a different computer. If you think your credit card information has been compromised call your bank and cancel the cards, and request new ones.

I was hacked once, but fortunately was in the middle of doing some work on my site and noticed a file that should not be there (from a well known hacker). The file was deleted and passwords changed. I believe it happened because my host didn’t provide sufficient diligence. I switched hosts.