The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and it’s only going to get 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 reported that 160,000+ WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image 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)
As described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website provides little to no value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, every website provides an opportunity to gain some advantage at your expense.
If a malicious user can find a way to break in and gain control of your site, your site can then be used as a “bot” in a planned cyberattack against larger and more valued web sites.
The reality is that hackers are probably trying to break into your blog as you are reading this page right now. Whether they can break into your site successfully will depend on how difficult or easy you can make things for hackers or bots to continue trying until they discover a way to get in, or decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Check Product image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will yield various results and information about your site …
(Hackertarget – website security check results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this scanning tool that if you are able to freely access all of this information, so can hackers.
(Source: Blog Defender)
The ability 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 can all be valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about any security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to malicious users and bots.
Blog Defender
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 creator of the BlogDefender security suit began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This particular site was almost brand new and so had practically nothing to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed by his host and observing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within his site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting victims to the site and steal their financial information.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
This example shows that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security weaknesses in your web site are …
And let’s you quickly fix these …
WordPress Plugins
The product suite includes three WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and cloud solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), schedule full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text string replacements in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides your site with security …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides a range of site and file security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Plugin #3 allows you to scan your content and files to detect if any code in your files has been changed, and fix any problems it detects …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious content have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Video Training
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes video training guides plus written guides that will teach you exactly what to do to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Ready To Use In Very Little Time
The plugins included with Blog Defender install just like any other WordPress plugin. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugins to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin area and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as 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 of using the plugin include the following:
- Secure your 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.
- Secure Your Info Products – If you’re a digital product author (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Suspended By Your Web Host And Deindexed By Search Engines – When a website has been hacked, you should expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. During this time, your, account can be closed by your webhost, or even blocked in search engines. And if this isn’t painful enough, your contacts could end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details can be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender hide your WordPress site from hackers and bots.
The product provides fixes for all of the following issues:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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
- File Monitoring
- Monitoring Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process to help protect your site, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Source: Blog Defender)
User Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials plugin customers have written about 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
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, since the release of Blog Defender, no Blog Defender-protected websites or blogs have been hacked.
Matt 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 is a constant game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers currently have access to. 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 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.
Product 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: The cost of purchasing the Blog Defender plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the software is selling for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the product seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
Regardless of the 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 website security.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, WP plugins and WordPress themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting security procedures like the one Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what your responsibilities are as a site 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 task of securing your WordPress website easier.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Product Suite
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