The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, 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 inevitable that at some point in time someone will attempt to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Screenshot image: 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 WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website or blog offers no value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites have value to a malicious user.
If someone can find a web software vulnerability that allows them to take over and control your site, that website or blog can then be employed to target more valued websites.
The harsh reality is that brute-force software bots are probably trying to hack into your site right now. Whether they will hack into your site successfully depends on how challenging you can make things for hackers to keep persisting until they find a way to break in, or are forced to decide to look for a less secure target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Check Screenshot image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will return various results and details about your site …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security check results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can freely access all of this information about your WordPress site, so can hackers.
(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 in your site can all be potentially useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of the BlogDefender security suit began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This site had literally no value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being contacted by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place inside his server, as well as the addition of several malicious files designed to drive unsuspecting victims to the site and hijack their financial details.
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
This simple example shows that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your website are …
And let’s you easily fix these …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security product suite comes with three plugins for WordPress:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
The plugin lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, external servers and well-known cloud storage solutions using different backup methods (including FTP and email backups), schedule complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text string replacements in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
The second plugin provides your website with security …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
The plugin performs a range of vital website security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan your content and files to detect whether code in your files has been changed, and fix any problems detected …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been inserted into your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender product suite also includes step-by-step videos plus downloadable documentation that teach you exactly what to do to protect your website from malicious attacks …
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
For more details go here:
Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Ready To Use In Minutes
The plugins included with Blog Defender are very easy to install. Simply upload them to your Plugin folder via your admin user section and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a DIY step-by-step training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free WordPress plugins you should install to get things done.
Additional benefits include:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products – If your site sells an information product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Your Host – When a site gets hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. Your, sites can get suspended by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. And if that is not enough to have to deal with, your contacts can be spammed, your subscriber list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Features
Blog Defender offers many features to website owners.
The product helps you fix all of the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- File Monitoring
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WordPress 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 your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
User Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials plugin customers have written about the Blog Defender solution:
”I’ve had to go through the inconvenience of a hacked blog before and let me tell you it’s not nice. With online security becoming an increasing problem, especially with WordPress, this is a great way to secure your blog. I’ll be following Matt’s training and securing all my blogs…Great job.” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.com
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”My business is built around the WordPress platform and I’m embarrassed to admin I’ve been slack in the security department. However, Matt’s training soon put that right! I followed each detailed video to the letter and discovered some incredible security tricks and plugins I’d never heard of before. Better still, all the plugins were free to download too! The end result? My WordPress membership site is now locked down tighter than Parkhurst at midnight and if anybody tries hacking it, I’ll be the first to know! thanks again Matt, I’m off to secure the rest of the blogs in my portfolio!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, since the release of Blog Defender, no sites using Blog Defender were 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 is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and technologies that developers currently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than many premium 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 risk-free, 30 day, full money-back guarantee.
Software Pricing
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.
Note: Current pricing for Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the product is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software seller when you visit the site 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 Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Install The Plugins
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress installation, plugins and WP themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting a security procedure like the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your websites are attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress site easier.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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