The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and the situation is getting worse.
You can safely assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone attempts to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(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 sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website has no significant value to hackers, but the reality is that every website is valuable to a malicious user.
If someone can hack and gain remote control of your web site, the site can then be used as a “bot” to attack larger and more valuable web sites.
The truth is that malicious bots are most likely trying to break into your site right now. Whether they can hack in or not, depends on how difficult you can make it for them to continue trying until they discover a way to get access, or give up and decide to 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 a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(WordPress Security Scan Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan will return various results and information about your website …
(Hackertarget – website security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this scanning tool that if you are able to see all of this information, hackers can too.
(Image source: Blog Defender)
The ability 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 can all be valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to malicious attackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress Websites & Blogs
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This particular blog had practically no value to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being contacted by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within his server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience is evidence that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for security holes …
And let’s you quickly and easily fix these …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite includes three WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
The plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, external servers and popular cloud-based storage solutions using different backup methods, schedule full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text replacements in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your WP website or blog with security …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
The “WordPress Security” plugin performs a range of website security functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” scans your WordPress plugins, themes and core files to detect if any of your files have been changed, and repair the problem …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your work without providing you anything of benefit in return).
Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes a number of step-by-step videos plus downloadable documentation that will show you exactly what you need to do to protect your website from malicious users …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender website)
For more details go here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Configure
The plugins are really easy to install. Simply upload them to your Plugin folder via your WP admin user account and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a step-by-step training product that will guide you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free WordPress plugins to use to get things done.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Secure your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If your site sells an info product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a site gets hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. As a result, your, blog can be suspended by your webhost, or even blacklisted in search engines. Additionally, your contacts could end up being spammed, your customer list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender was designed to locks down your site and keeps your business safe and secure 24/7.
Blog Defender covers the following areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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
- File Monitoring
- Tracking Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps to help secure your web site, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Image source: BlogDefender site)
Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials customers have published about 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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”Just one tip could have prevented my blogs getting hacked!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin’s site, no Blog Defender-secured websites have been hacked since Blog Defender’s release.
Matt Garrett, the product developer 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.”
Cybersecurity is is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools that developers can currently access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than most web 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 risk-free, thirty day, 100% 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.
Please Note: The cost of purchasing this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing above was correct when this article was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product author when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Plugin Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
The Bottom Line
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, WP plugins and WP themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting a security policy 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 to help prevent your sites being attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major WordPress security holes without paying a lot of money.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Plugin
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