The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and the situation is only going to get 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 reported that 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Image: 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 flaw to attack unsuspecting WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website has no value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, every website is an opportunity to profit or benefit at your expense.
If a hacker can find a vulnerability, that website can then be used as a “bot” in a planned cyberattack against other valued web sites.
The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are probably looking for security exploits and trying to break into your web site right now. Whether they can achieve this or not, depends on how hard you can make it for hackers to keep trying until they can find how to get access, or are forced to give up and decide to look for an easier 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 …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Check Product image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check returns various results and details about your website setup …
(WP security check results. Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can freely access all of this information, then so can hackers.
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
The ability to see what 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 valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender WordPress Security Suite
Product Description
The product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by the hosting company. This particular blog was devoid of content and had literally no value to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being contacted by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place within the server, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files designed to lure visitors to the site and steal their Paypal account information.
(Product image: Blog Defender)
This simple example should be enough to illustrate the fact that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security weaknesses in your WordPress installation are …
And let’s you fix these quickly …
WP Plugins
Blog Defender comes with three plugins for WordPress:
The first plugin in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud-based storage solutions using different backup methods (e.g. Email), schedule full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text string replacements in databases, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your website with security …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
This plugin performs a range of site and file security functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 scans your plugins, themes, WordPress core files and content to detect if any of your files have been found, and repair problems …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your content without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Step-By-Step Training Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes seven step-by-step video training modules and training documentation that show you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from malicious users …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Below 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 site:
Ready To Use In Minutes
The plugins included with Blog Defender install like any plugin. Just upload a zip file containing the plugins to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin section and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which plugins you can install for free to get the job done inexpensively.
Additional benefits of the plugin include the following:
- Protect your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products From Being Freely Distributed – If you’re an info product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Your Host – When a site is hacked, expect to go through a great deal of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. During this time, your, sites could be suspended by your host, or even blacklisted in search engines. Additionally, your personal 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 much more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender hide your web site from hackers and malicious botnets.
Blog Defender provides fixes for the following areas:
- Host 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
- File Monitoring
- Monitoring Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help protect your website, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Source: BlogDefender website)
Feedback From Users
Below are just a few of the testimonials and comments that plugin customers have provided for the Blog Defender security products:
”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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”I sure wish I’d had this before I lost over a dozen blogs just recently. Okay, it was my fault for not securing things more, BUT… I didn’t have a handy, current reference like this to turn to for quick help either.;)” Kathe Lucas – www.wackycentral.com
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, no Blog Defender-secured sites were hacked since Blog Defender was first released in 2012.
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.”
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 that 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, 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.
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 no-risk, thirty day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product Pricing
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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: Price details for Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price above was correct when this content was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software seller when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
We Recommend
Regardless of the 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 ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, WP plugins and themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting a security policy like the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what your security responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your sites are hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress site easier.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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