The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and this is getting worse.
It’s probably safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’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+ legitimate WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Screenshot 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 web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website or blog has no significant value to hackers, but the reality is that every website is valuable to a malicious user.
If hackers can hack and remotely take control of your blog, your site can then be employed to target other valued sites.
The truth is that software-driven bots are very likely searching for vulnerabilities and trying to break into your website as you are reading this. Whether they will hack into your site successfully or not, depends on how hard you have made it for hackers to continue persisting until they can either discover how to break in, or give up and 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 website through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Check Source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns various results and details about your site …
(Hackertarget – website security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the scanning tool that if you can access all of this information, hackers can too.
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
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 are all potentially useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially where site owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution that will 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, plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the creator of the BlogDefender security suit began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This particular blog was new and had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being suspended by his host and noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within the server, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that every website has some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for potential security weaknesses …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite comes with three WordPress plugins:
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Source: BlogDefender website)
This plugin lets you do secure backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud-based backup solutions using different backup methods (including FTP and email backups), automate full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text strings in your database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your web site with security …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 provides a range of website security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan your WordPress plugins, themes and core files to see if any code in your files has been altered, and repair the problem …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your content without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Step-By-Step Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes seven training modules in video format plus written guides that will show you exactly what to do to protect your site from hackers …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
More info:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure
The Blog Defender plugins are really easy to install. Simply upload them to your Plugins folder via your administrator section and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a step-by-step training product that guides you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free WordPress plugins to use to get the job done inexpensively.
Some additional benefits of the plugin include the following:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Prevent Your Info Products From Being Shared Around The Net – If you are a digital product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a site gets hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, blog can get suspended by your webhost, or even blocked by search engines. In addition, your personal contacts can be spammed, your customer list and financial details could be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender make your your WordPress website or blog invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you fix the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- Monitor Files
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process to help protect your web site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials From Plugin Customers
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback plugin users have written about 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
Useful Tips
According to the plugin’s website, since Blog Defender was first released, no websites using Blog Defender were hacked.
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.”
Cybersecurity is an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers currently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t require 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.
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, thirty day, complete 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.. Price = $47.00.
Please Note: Current pricing for the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current price at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin author when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
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 web security.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WP core files, plugins and themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting security procedures like the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what your security responsibilities are as the website owner, 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 installation easier.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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