The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s inevitable that at some point in time someone will attempt to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Source: Blog Defender)
According to the Cnet report,
“With some old-fashioned trickery, hackers were able to get more than 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered Web sites to mount a distributed-denial-of-service attack against another Web site.”
(Source: cnet.com/news/ddos-attack-is-launched-from-162000-wordpress-sites)
According to leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website with a vulnerability provides an opportunity to hackers. Every website is valuable to hackers. Corporate web sites, personal blogs, government sites … even websites owned by online security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If hackers can discover a security vulnerability that allows them to gain remote control of your web site, that website can then be employed to target larger and more highly-valued websites.
The harsh reality is that hackers are most likely looking for exploits and trying to break into your site at this very moment. Whether they can achieve this or not, depends on how hard or easy you have made things for them to continue persisting until they either can find a way to get access, or are forced to give up and go look for a less protected target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and details about your website setup …
(WP security scan results. Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you are able to freely access all of this information, hackers can too.
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Being able to see which version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed on your site, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories are all useful information to hackers, as this informs them about any exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This particular blog was not being used and had practically nothing to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of this after being informed by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within the server, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files designed to drive unsuspecting visitors to the site and hijack financial information.
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
This simple example provides the valuable lesson that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you web site for potential security weaknesses …
And let’s you easily fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The Blog Defender security product suite includes 3 plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Source: BlogDefender website)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and leading cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods, automate full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to new domains or server locations), do mass text replacements in databases, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides WordPress security …
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
The “WordPress Security” plugin provides a range of essential site security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan your WP plugins, themes and core files to see whether any code in your files has been tampered with, and fix any problems it uncovers …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your content without providing you anything of benefit in return).
Video Training
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes 7 videos and printable guides that will show you exactly how to protect your site from malicious users …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
For more details go here:
Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Be Up And Running In No Time
The plugins are very easy to install. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugins to your Plugin folder via your administrator account and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a DIY step-by-step training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which WordPress plugins you can use for free to get the job done without paying unnecessary costs.
Some additional benefits of the plugin include the following:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Helps Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you sell an info product (e.g. downloadable e-books, video training, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a site is hacked, you should expect to go through a great deal of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, blog can get closed by your webhost, or even blacklisted by search engines. And if that isn’t painful enough, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business or financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Features
Blog Defender hide your website or blog from hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender helps you fix the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- Monitoring Files
- Link Monitoring
- Block Known Offenders
- Automate Core WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps for securing your website, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Feedback From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback customers have provided for Blog Defender:
”I’ve had to go through the inconvenience of a hacked blog before and let me tell you it’s not nice. With online security becoming an increasing problem, especially with WordPress, this is a great way to secure your blog. I’ll be following Matt’s training and securing all my blogs…Great job.” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.com
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”I discovered some incredible security tricks!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Plugin Tips
According to the product’s site, since Blog Defender was released back in 2012, no websites or blogs secured by the solution have been hacked.
Matt Garrett also states on his site, however …
“With the volume of attacks nowadays … we probably won’t hold forever, so we’ve been busy creating even tougher WordPress security.”
The war on hackers is an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers presently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than most premium security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Support
The product is well-supported, can be used by both Mac and PC users, is compatible with the latest WordPress release and is backed by a no-risk, thirty day, complete refund guarantee.
Software Cost
Blog Defender is normally available for personal use only on unlimited sites. When we last checked, however, it was also being sold with Developer rights, allowing users to secure client sites as well.. Price = $47.00.
Note: The price of this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the pricing when this review was written. This may not be the actual price set by the software author when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price here:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Download The Product
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of website security.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, plugins and themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major security risks without paying for costly solutions.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Suite
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