Found a Hidden Link on my Sidebar!

Can you offer advice?

[katherinez]

I was adding something to my sidebar and found a link to another site in the code! It is as follows, edited of course:

<div style="display:none"><a href="http://a german website name">A german word</a><a href="http://another url/">A Spanish Word or Two</a><a href="http://yet another url/">English Key Words</a></div>

I am NOT a programmer whatsoever and have no idea where to go from here and how to find if I have other sites on the server with that problem. I've just created a help desk request with my hosting company.

I've never even heard of "display:none"

You are all the experts... can you tell me in an easily understandable way what I should do from here? Thanks SO MUCH! (I feel like I have been burglarized!)

[phranque]

the display:none style makes the links invisible in a css-enabled browser.
however it is still followed by search engines and this hack is used to "enhance" the link profile of the hackers' sites.

you might find useful information in the following WebmasterWorld threads.

Hacker gets access to server. How?:
[webmasterworld.com...]
How Hacked Servers Can Hurt Your Traffic:
[webmasterworld.com...]
Securing A Linux Web Server:
[webmasterworld.com...]