The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and it’s getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if you haven’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 160,000+ WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot image: 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)
As reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every site with a security vulnerability can be an opportunity to hackers. An unsecured website or blog offers hackers with a valuable resource to launch DDoS attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft.
If a malicious user can find a weakness in your security, the website can then be used as a “bot” to attack larger and more highly-valued sites.
The truth is that software-driven bots are probably looking for security weaknesses and trying to break into your blog at this very moment. Whether they can get in successfully or not, depends on how difficult you can make it for them to continue trying until they work out how to get access, or give up and go look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Scan Source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns various results and details about your site setup …
(website security check results. Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this scanning tool that if you can see all of this information, hackers can too.
(Screenshot 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 can all be potentially valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress Blogs
Product Description
Blog Defender 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 to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother got hacked into. This particular site had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place inside his server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your WordPress installation are …
And let’s you fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security product suite includes three plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 lets you do secure backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud backup solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. Email), perform complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to new domains or server locations), search and replace text strings in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your website or blog with security …
(Source: BlogDefender website)
Plugin #2 performs a range of essential file and site protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Plugin #3 scans your web site to detect if anything has been altered, and repair any problems detected …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Step-By-Step Tutorial Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender WordPress security suite also includes several training in video format and written documentation that show you exactly what to do to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
More info:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Use
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite install just like every WordPress plugin. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugins to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a practical and useful DIY training product that will guide you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which plugins you can install for free to get the job done without paying additional or unnecessary expenses.
Some additional benefits include the following:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you sell an information product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Web Host And Deindexed By Search Engines – When a website has been 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 any issues these have caused. Your, blog could be closed by your webhost, or even deindexed in search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details and financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Features
Blog Defender offers a number of great features to website owners.
The product covers the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- 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 Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Monitoring Links
- Block Known Offenders
- Automating Core WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process for securing your your WordPress installation, 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 website security process. Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
Feedback From Plugin Customers
Here are a couple of the testimonials that users have written about the Blog Defender product:
”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
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, no websites or blogs secured with the product 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.”
The war on hackers is is a never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers currently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’t cost you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than many web security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Product 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, 100% refund guarantee.
Product Price
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: Price details for the Blog Defender 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 content was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software author when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price:
Additional Plugin Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Install The Plugins
Regardless of the type 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 secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, WordPress plugins and themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security policies like the one Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your site easier.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender
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