If you are a website owner then you know that nothing is more horrifying than seeing a message saying that your website have been hacked.

There is a lot of possibilities as to why this happens.

Today we will look at the possible underlying circumstances as to why your website is hacked or is susceptible to website attacks and hacking.

Three things come to mind on why websites are usually hacked:

1. To send out spam email\
2. To gain access to your personal data, mailing list, credit card info, and others.
3. Gain access to your site so that they can install malicious software that they can use your site.

The benefits of hacking for the hacker boils down to mass exposure, reduced overhead, tools, increased rate of success.

Why Hackers Hack?

Economic Gains

Obviously the first reason as to why a website gets hacked is purely economic. Hackers do this to make money from your audience.

One way they do is by the means of a Drive-by-download. This is the act of injecting your site with a malware hoping to infect your website visitors.

It works like this, whenever your readers visit your site, chances are they will be downloading a fake software that you recommended and that software is has only one command, to extract vital credit card info. The effects are rather devastating to say the least.

System Resources

Another reason why a hacker will hack your website is farming your system resources. This comes in the form of increased bandwidth and physical server use.

This is big business as a successful hack not only mean that the hacker has now increased bandwidth, but moreover, he can build a leasing environment off yours.

Hactivism

This is a bit tacky to quantify but nonetheless too real not to consider. If nothing else, some hackers derive maximum pleasure and satisfaction from being able to take control over a site, in this case, a government site to protest or show their agenda.

They then show this to their peers and use as bragging rights. One famous example is a group of hackers who call themselves “anonymous”

Boredom

Yes, some hackers, out of sheer boredom (for having too much time on their hands) with nothing better to do will actually find hacking a site the actual cure for their boredom.

In closing

Being hacked is not a pleasant experience. It will demand your full attention if you want to restore your site and remove the malware installed.

In our next installment I’ll present some anti-hacking and security guides that you can use to avoid being hacked again or hacked in the first place.

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