The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and it’s getting worse.
It’s probably safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’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 over 160,000+ legitimate WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image 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)
As reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a vulnerability can present an opportunity to hackers. An unsecured site not only presents hackers opportunities to improve their skills and win “respect” amongst their peers, but it can also acts as a platform for distributed attacks, distributing malware and participating in information theft.
If a malicious user can break in and remotely take control of your website, your website or blog can then be employed to target other highly-valued websites.
The harsh reality is that malicious bots are most likely trying to break into your website or blog while you are reading this right now. Whether they will break into your site successfully depends on how difficult or easy you can make it for them to keep persisting until they find a way to get in, or decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(WordPress Security Scan Source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test returns a number of results and details about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – WP security check results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to see all of this information about your WordPress website, then so can hackers.
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
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 in your site are all useful information to hackers, as this informs them about any exploitable vulnerabilities, especially where the owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a simple way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress
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 creator of the BlogDefender security suit began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by its hosting company. This site was quite new and so had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being contacted by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place within his server, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting visitors to the site and steal financial information.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
This simple example illustrates the fact that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for security weaknesses …
And let’s you fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
Plugins
Blog Defender includes three plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, external servers and well-known cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods, automate complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to different domains or server locations), do bulk text string replacements in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 provides your website or blog with security …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
The plugin provides a range of file and site protection functions (see “Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” allows you to scan your website to detect if anything unusual has been tampered with, and fix any problems it uncovers …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #3 “WordPress 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 work without providing you anything in return).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes a number of step-by-step training in video format plus training guides that teach you exactly what to do to protect your site from hackers …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Go here to learn more:
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 website:
Quick And Easy To Install And Configure
The plugins are really easy to install. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow DIY training product that will guide you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free plugins you should use to get things done without incurring additional costs.
Some additional benefits and advantages include:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Secure Your Info Products – If you’re a digital product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a site gets hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. During this time, your, blog could be suspended by your host, or even blocked in search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal details and financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender provides a number of great features to web site owners.
Blog Defender helps you fix all of the following security areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- Monitor Files
- Monitoring Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps to help protect your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky WordPress themes and WP plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Source: BlogDefender site)
Feedback From Customers
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback plugin users have submitted for the Blog Defender security suite:
”Great way to secure your blog!” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.com
***
”I sure wish I’d had this before I lost over a dozen blogs just recently. Okay, it was my fault for not securing things more, BUT… I didn’t have a handy, current reference like this to turn to for quick help either.;)” Kathe Lucas – www.wackycentral.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, since Blog Defender’s first release, no Blog Defender-secured websites or blogs have been hacked.
Matt Garrett also states on his site …
“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 escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools that developers can currently harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, won’t cost a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most web security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Blog Defender Plugin 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, 30 day, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Blog Defender is normally available with a personal license only for use 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 price shown above was correct at the time this article was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Get The Product
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your web site is something you simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WP installation, plugins and themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security procedures like the one 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 hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major security risks without paying a lot of money.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender
***
***