The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and things are only going to get worse.
It’s 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 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?
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
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 cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website or blog offers no value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites have some value to a malicious user.
If a hacker can find a software flaw in your security that allows them to gain control of your blog, your blog can then be used as part of a larger network of “bots” to target larger and more valuable sites.
The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are probably trying to break into your site as you are reading this page right now. Whether they will achieve this depends on how difficult or easy you will make it for hackers and bots to keep persisting until they either can find how to get in, or are forced to give up and go look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(WordPress Security Check Screenshot image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will return a number of results and information about your website …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security check results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can access all of this information about your WordPress website, hackers can too.
(Image source: 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 can all be potentially valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about potential holes or weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and protect against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Solution 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 developer of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into. This particular site had literally no value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of this after being contacted by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place within the site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting visitors to the site and hijack their Paypal account information.
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience shows that every website has some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for potential security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
WordPress Plugins
Blog Defender includes three WordPress plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Source: BlogDefender website)
The plugin lets you do secure backups to your server, third-party servers and cloud-based solutions using a number of backup methods, automate complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text replacements in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides your site with security …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
The “WordPress Security” plugin performs a range of site and file protection functions (see “Features” section below).
Plugin #3 scans your WP plugins, themes and WP core files to detect if anything unusual has been modified, and repair any problems detected …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been inserted into your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your work without providing any benefit in return).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes seven step-by-step video training modules plus downloadable guides that will show you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from hackers …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
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:
Fast Installation
The plugins included with Blog Defender are quite easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugins folder via your administrator account and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a practical training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which WordPress plugins you can install for free to get the job done inexpensively.
Additional benefits include the following:
- Protect your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Theft – If you’re a digital product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Host – When a site is hacked, 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, sites could get closed by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. And if this is not painful enough, your contacts can end up being spammed, your customer list and financial details can be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Features
Blog Defender provides many features to web site owners.
Blog Defender provides fixes for all of the following areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- Monitoring Files
- Tracking Links
- Block Known Offenders
- Automate Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process to help protect your web site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials and feedback that plugin customers have provided for Blog Defender:
”This is probably one of those times you ask yourself ‘do I really need this product?’ Let’s face it, on the surface it’s not going to immediately put more money in your pocket or even add some cool new gizmo to your site… The truth is yes you do and you need it now. I’ve been in the online business for 10+ years and had my fair share of hacked sites which have cost me time and money (lots of it)…I’ve also seen a good number of people have their reputations and entire businesses left in tatters when their sites have been hacked. Right now is the time to act, because when it’s too late, well basically you’ll be screwed (and you’ll regret the day you passed over such a great opportunity to protect yourself for so little). And by the way, if you think your web host will come to your rescue think again, you’ll be on your own, paying to put things right and suffering the cost of lost sales and business. This is a seriously good product and if you rely on WordPress to make you money online then it’s nothing less than essential. Buy it, follow Matt’s expert advice and don’t end up another victim!” Simon Hodgkinson, www.hodgkinsonpublishing.com
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”In the past month alone, I’ve had 3 niche blogs hacked, costing me hundreds of dollars in lost sales – all of which could have been avoided if I followed the steps in this training. I can tell you, there’s nothing worse than spending months building up a blog, adding posts every few days, and then finding it all gone in an instant. The great thing about these ‘over the shoulder’ videos is that you get to see exactly how to do everything, so it doesn’t matter if you’re technically challenged. Just copy what you see on the screen, and then relax knowing your blogs are safe. (Just one of the tips in the first video alone could probably have prevented my blogs getting hacked) I even noticed one or two tips in there that help with SEO too … so following these videos could even bring your blogs more traffic!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012, no sites using Blog Defender have been hacked.
Matt Garrett, the product developer 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 ever-escalating arms race 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 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, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
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 Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product is being retailed for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software author when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support 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, securing your web site is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like making sure that your WordPress installation, plugins and WP 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 your security responsibilities are as the site owner, 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 which tools can make the process of securing your website easier.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender
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