The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and it’s getting worse.
It’s probably 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 over 162,000 WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image 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)
As described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your site has no significant value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites provide an opportunity to profit or benefit at your expense.
If hackers can exploit a security flaw, that site can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target other valuable sites.
The reality is that brute-force software bots are very likely trying to hack into your website right now. Whether they will get in or not, will depend on how hard or easy you can make things for them to keep trying until they either can work out how to get access, or are forced to decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Check Product image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will return various results and information about your WordPress setup …
(Hackertarget – website security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to access all of this information about your website, then hackers can too.
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
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 on your server are all useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender
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 creator of BlogDefender began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This particular blog had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being contacted by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within his server, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience is evidence that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you web site for potential security holes …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security product suite includes 3 plugins for WordPress:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, external servers and leading cloud-based backup solutions using a number of backup methods, automate full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to new 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 your website with security …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
This plugin provides a range of vital website security functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 lets you scan your plugins, themes, core files and content to see if any code in your files has been tampered with, and fix the problem …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 hard work without offering any reciprocal benefit or value in return).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes 7 training modules in video format and PDF/DOC documentation that teach you exactly how to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
Learn more 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:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product install like any regular plugin. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which WordPress plugins you can use for free to get things done inexpensively.
Additional benefits and advantages include:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Theft – If you are an information product author (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a site gets hacked, you should expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. During this time, your, websites could get closed by your host, or even deindexed by search engines. In addition, your contacts can be spammed, your subscriber list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides many unique features to site owners.
The product addresses the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- WordPress 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
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process for securing your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
User Testimonials
Below are just some testimonials and comments plugin users have written about the Blog Defender product suite:
”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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”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’s site, since Blog Defender was first released in 2012, no Blog Defender-protected websites have been hacked.
Matt 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 is a constant game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers currently have access to. 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 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, thirty day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: Price details for Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing when this article was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin author when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
What We Recommend
Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot ignore the importance of website security.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress installation, WP plugins and themes updated to their latest versions, 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 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 all the major security risks without paying for costly solutions.
For full details, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender WordPress Security Solution
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