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Malware Scanning is available on modern VPS, Dedicated, WordPress, Podcast Websites, and post-2011 Shared hosting accounts only.
Malware is malicious software devised to infect, destroy, and damage your website. If your account gets infected, you risk data loss, website defacement, or, if left untreated, having your sites disabled.
We offer a malware scanning feature that will automatically scan your Web directory files. If malware is found in any of the files, you will be notified.
To turn on malware scanning, follow these steps:
- Log in to the Account Control Center (ACC)
- In the left sidebar, click Security, then click Intrusion Defense
- Select the Intrusion Defense package you want:
- Basic Malware Scanning: no additional charge; up to 10000 eligible files scanned each week
- Intrusion Defense: a premium security package with malware scanning, unlimited malware cleanups, white glove WordPress hardening, and more! Find more information here: Intrusion Defense FAQ
- Click the Enable Intrusion Defense button
Once enabled, your server will be assigned a day of the week to scan. Every week on that day, your Web directory will be scanned for malware. You can see your designated malware scanning day on the Malware Scanning page.
Each scan will go through 10000 files. If you Web directory contains more than 10000 files, then the rest of the files will be checked in the following scans.
Certain files, like .zip or .gzip, may be skipped because they are large and severely slow down the scanning process.
To see scan results, return to the Security tab, then click Intrusion Defense in the drop-down. Results from each scan will be listed there, as well as any infected files found.
If you find you have malware, you can either contact us to clean your server for you or attempt to remove the malware manually. You can learn more about manual malware removal in our What to Do if You Have Malware article.