The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation is only going to get worse.
It’s safe to 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 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
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 flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website has no significant value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites have value to a malicious user.
If a hacker can exploit a way to gain access and control of your website or blog, your website can then be employed as a “bot” to attack other valued websites.
The harsh reality is that malicious bots are probably searching for security exploits and trying to hack into your web site at this very moment. Whether they will be successful or not, will depend on how difficult you can make things for them to keep persisting until they discover a way to get access, or are forced to decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Screenshot source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test will display various results and details about your website setup …
(Hackertarget – WP security scan results. Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can access all of this information about your blog, then so can hackers.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender website)
Being able to see what version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories can all be valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and help to protect it against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Solution
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother got hacked into. This blog was almost brand new and so had practically no value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred inside his server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his site.
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience should be enough to illustrate the fact that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for potential security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
WordPress Plugins
The product suite includes 3 plugins for WordPress:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
This plugin lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud solutions using a number of backup methods, automate full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text string replacements in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides your WordPress web site with security …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 performs a range of site protection functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
The third plugin allows you to scan your website or blog to detect whether anything unusual in your files or source code has been modified, and fix any problems it uncovers …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been inserted into your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes 7 training modules in video format plus PDF/DOC documentation that teach you exactly how to protect your website from malicious users …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here are just some of the many benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Ready To Use In No Time
The plugins included with Blog Defender are very easy to install. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugins to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a DIY step-by-step training product that guides you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which plugins you can install for free to get things done without incurring additional expenses.
Some additional benefits include the following:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Helps Avoid Intellectual Property Theft – If you are an information product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blacklisted By Search Engines – When a website gets 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. During this time, your, account can be closed by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. And if this is not enough to have to deal with, your personal contacts can be spammed, your customer list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides a number of great features to WP users.
Blog Defender helps you fix the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- 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
- File Monitoring
- Track Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process to help protect your web site, addressing hosting security, using tools to identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image: BlogDefender website)
Feedback From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials and comments customers have written about Blog Defender:
”Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re too small or not important enough to be hacked! I’ve found out that I’ve had bots in the backend of my sites, making alterations and changing things around, so there’s no telling what damage they’ve caused. I’ve had my main blog for over 3 years now, and the thought of losing all the hard work I’ve put into it is just devastating, not to mention costly! I have a shared hosting plan, so of course once they can get into one site, they can also access the others. Luckily, I now have the procedures detailed within Blog Defender in place so that I can prevent the majority of this ever happening again. Once you’ve secured one site it gets a lot quicker to secure all subsequent sites. With Blog Defender, you get easy-to-follow videos, along with a detailed checklist that you can downloadf. You are literally walked through the process of securing your blog against hackers, which has given me real peace of mind. This is a growing issue that all website owners are facing; so it isn’t going to go away. Prevention is better than cure, particularly as some of the nastier hacks around can literally ruin your business. So do yourself a favour – get your sites protected now, before it’s too late.” Nikki Stephens, www.nikkistephens.com
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”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
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012, no Blog Defender-secured websites or blogs were hacked.
Matt Garrett, the product developer 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 ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, doesn’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.
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, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin 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: Pricing details of the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price when this review was published. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin author when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing here:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Get The Product
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot ignore the importance of website security.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress installation, WP plugins and WP themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting a security procedure like the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what’s going on in your site and where the security holes 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 which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress site easier.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Suite
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