The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation is getting worse.
It’s probably 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 began reporting that over 160,000+ legitimate WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Could your website be next?
(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 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.
Every website with a security vulnerability can be an opportunity to hackers. A vulnerable website or blog presents hackers with a platform for launching denial of service attacks, spreading malware and to engage in information theft.
If hackers can find a way to gain any form of control of your web site, the blog can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target other highly-valued sites.
The truth is that malicious bots are probably scouring for weaknesses and trying to hack into your web site while you are reading this at this very moment. Whether they will break into your site will depend on how difficult you can make things for hackers and bots to keep trying until they work out how to get in, or decide to look for a less protected 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 site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Check Source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and information about your website setup …
(WordPress security scan results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you can freely access all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
Being able 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 on your server can all be useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and help to protect it against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Plugin
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 the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended. This particular site had literally nothing to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being suspended by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place inside his site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his site.
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that every website has value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for potential security weaknesses …
And let’s you fix these quickly …
Plugins
Blog Defender comes with three WordPress plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
The plugin lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. FTP), automate full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides your website or blog with security …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
This plugin performs a range of essential file and site security functions (see “Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” allows you to scan your WP plugins, WordPress themes and core files to see if any of your files have been altered, and fix problems …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 people benefit from your content without reciprocating the favor).
Video Training
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender product suite also includes step-by-step tutorial videos plus printable guides that will teach you exactly how to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Go here to learn more:
Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement
The Blog Defender plugins are very easy to install. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugins to your Plugins folder via your administrator area and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a practical training product that will guide you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which plugins you can install for free to get the job done inexpensively.
Additional benefits include:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Theft – If you are an info product author (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Web Host And Banned By Search Engines – When a website gets hacked, you should expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, website or blog could get suspended by your host, or even blocked by search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender make your your website invisible to hackers and malicious bots.
Blog Defender helps you fix the following issues:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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
- Monitor Files
- Monitor Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help secure your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky WP themes and plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Image source: BlogDefender site)
Feedback From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback users have provided for Blog Defender:
”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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”Just one tip could have prevented my blogs getting hacked!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, no Blog Defender-protected websites or blogs have been hacked since Blog Defender’s release in 2012.
Matt Garrett 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 never-ending 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.
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.
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: Pricing for Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing when this review was published. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin seller when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
The Bottom Line
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your site is something you simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress software, WordPress plugins and WP themes up-to-date, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting security procedures like the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what your security responsibilities are as a site owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress website easier.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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