Is there any way to monitor a site for hack attacks.

December 20, 2010 10:12 AM

Is there a way to monitor my website to ensure it hasn't been hacked? Either on the webserver itself, perhaps verifying file integrity/listings, or maybe using a service that periodically visits the site? Sorry if this sounds like a naive question. What do professional webmasters use for this kind of thing?
posted by deeper red to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Depending on the size of the organization, you're likely to see a combination of a file integrity monitoring solution, well-monitored HIPS/NIPS, and log monitoring.
posted by deadmessenger at 10:28 AM on December 20, 2010

Most professional sites use a service like this, there is also a paid version too.
posted by alfanut at 10:53 AM on December 20, 2010

Have you looked at Google's Webmaster Tools?
posted by dolface at 11:31 AM on December 20, 2010

There's a whole spectrum of services & software involved here. The most basic would be services that periodically check to make sure your site is intact & not defaced, that there's no known copies of malware installed on it waiting to infect visitors to your site. A step up from that would be services & software that scan your website for actual vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers. And then you have a range of DIY tools for intrusion detection that use a variety of techniques such as file integrity scans that use cryptographic checksums, logfile & process monitoring that try to catch the hack as it happens, which generally require a fair amount of expertise to install, maintain & administer.
posted by scalefree at 12:36 PM on December 20, 2010

Tripwire? It checks whether files on the server have been modified, by comparing their checksums to previously stored values.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 12:03 PM on December 24, 2010