# Website Content Monitoring - ManageEngine Applications Manager

Website defacement is one of the biggest security challenges to any organization running its business online. The term **Web Defacement** refers to any unauthorized changes made to the appearance of either a single webpage, or an entire site. It is typically done by hackers who break into a web server and replace the content/script in the hosted website with their own, using techniques such as phishing, code injection and cross-site scripting. Insertion of potentially hazardous content, images, malicious code, or even deletion of content can inflict severe damage to your business reputation and reliability.

Applications Manager's [website monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/products/applications_manager/website-monitoring.html) tool features tons of functionalities which periodically checks the integrity of your website by detecting content modification and other critical elements that contribute to security breaches. These capabilities are part of the broader [website performance monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/products/applications_manager/website-performance-monitoring.html) solution offered by Applications Manager. Once you set up **website content monitor**, it starts polling your web page to record and detect any form of data tampering.

![Graph showing the defaced script and defaced text percentages](https://www.manageengine.com/products/applications_manager/images/wcm-defacement-stats.webp)

## Benefits of Content Monitoring

Using a **website content monitoring tool** like Applications Manager paves the way for ensuring constant uptime of your business-critical website through constant vigilance against malicious attacks. Monitoring your web page for content changes comes with tons of advantages like:

- Fast detection of security breaches on your website including unauthorized addition or modification of HTML elements (as well as the percentage of text and script modified
- Rapid discovery of quality issues, outages and website hijacking
- Identifying changes in an HTML element's 'href' or 'src' attributes to a previously unused domain name
- Early identification of security infringements
- Amped-up defence against SQL injection attacks
- Increased website and web application availability

## Inspect HTML elements with a Website Defacement Monitor

The Website defacement monitoring feature from Applications Manager allows you to keep track of six basic HTML elements namely ***Text, Script, Image, Anchor, Iframe and Link***. It detects changes in website elements and such unauthorized access or changes in the website content is brought to attention in the form of alert notifications.

![Defacement dashboard shows difference between original and modified content](https://www.manageengine.com/products/applications_manager/images/wcm-content-defacement-monitoring.webp)

Our standard content defacement check includes unauthorized addition or modification of the following HTML elements:

- **Text Defacement** - Identify content changes concerning the visible content in the rendered web page.
- **Script Defacement** - Identify changes in the scripts embedded and detect any 'src' attribute changes for the external script.
- **Image Defacement** - Identify 'src' attribute changes in the images present in the web page. Alert if there is any image displayed from a new domain other than the captured domains.
- **Anchor Defacement** - Identify 'href' attribute changes in the anchor links present in the web page. Alert if there is a link to a new domain other than the captured domains.
- **Iframe Defacement** - Identify 'src' attribute changes in the iframe elements and notify if there is a change in the domain name in the configured URL.
- **Link Defacement** - Identify 'href' attribute changes in the link elements of the web page.

## Receive real-time alerts on web defacement

![Image showing the changes in page size over time.](https://www.manageengine.com/products/applications_manager/images/wcm-content-changes.webp)

Become aware, not only when your website is defaced, but also of the remedial action that is to be taken. **Applications Manager's website content monitoring** helps ensure that relevant parties are notified, aid in troubleshooting issues during a defacement detection, helps stay on top of security infringements and also helps perform damage control after an incident. This will allow any corrections to be made promptly so that your organization will not be impacted by potential website defacement.