The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and it’s getting worse.
You can safely assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that over 160,000+ WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Source: BlogDefender website)
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 web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website has no significant value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites are an opportunity to gain some benefit at your expense.
If a malicious user can hack into and take over your website or blog, the website or blog can then be used to target larger and more valuable web sites.
The truth is that hackers are very likely trying to break into your website or blog as you are reading these very words. Whether they will achieve this will depend on how hard you have made it for hackers to keep persisting until they either discover a way to break in, or decide to look for an easier 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 check …
(WordPress Security Scan Source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will display a number of results and information about your site …
(website security scan results. Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can freely access all of this information about your website, then hackers can too.
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
The ability to see which version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories are all valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about any exploitable security weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution to 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 developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by the hosting company. This blog was fairly new and had practically no value to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being contacted by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place inside the site, as well as the addition of several phishing files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Source: Blog Defender)
This example provides the valuable lesson that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for potential security holes …
And let’s you easily fix these …
Plugins
The product suite includes three plugins for WordPress:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
This plugin lets you do automated backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud-based solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. FTP), automate full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to different domains or server locations), do bulk text string replacements in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides WordPress security …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides a range of essential site protection functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 scans your website to see whether your source code has been tampered with, and fix any problems found …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been added to your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your work without providing any reciprocal value in return).
Blog Defender – Video Tutorials
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender WordPress security product suite also includes video guides plus PDF/DOC documentation that will teach you exactly how to protect your site from malicious users …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
More info:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Use
The Blog Defender plugins are really easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugins folder via your WP admin user section and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which plugins you can install for free to get things done without paying additional or unnecessary expenses.
Additional benefits include the following:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protect Your Info Products From Being Stolen – If you sell an info product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Closed By Your Web Host And Delisted By Search Engines – When a website is hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, website can be suspended by your webhost, or even blacklisted by search engines. And if that is not painful enough, your contacts can be spammed, your customer list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Features
Blog Defender provides many features to WP users.
Blog Defender covers the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- Monitor Files
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process for securing your website, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image source: Blog Defender)
User Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that customers have provided for Blog Defender:
”This is a seriously good product!” Simon Hodgkinson, www.hodgkinsonpublishing.com
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”Since working with blogs, I… like many others, have been concerned about how to handle the constant threat of blog attacks. After having a look at Blog Defender you can’t help but become most aware of the vulnerable areas all bloggers need to protect. Blog Defender is viable WordPress blog security prevention system that offers video instruction along with 3 software plugins that are free to download. The instruction shows the optimum settings on how to use the free plugins that will allow you top level force against blog hacker attacks.” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, no Blog Defender-protected websites or blogs have been hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
The product developer 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.”
Cybersecurity is an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers can currently harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, won’t cost you 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 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, 30 day, full refund guarantee.
Product License Cost
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.. Cost = $47.00.
Please Note: The cost to purchase Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the software retails for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin seller 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 current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Install These Plugins
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, plugins and WordPress themes, 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 your security responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if the security on your site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress site easier.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Solution
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