The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and the situation is only going to get worse.
It’s safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone attempts to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Screenshot image: 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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website with a vulnerability provides some degree of opportunity to hackers. A vulnerable website or blog not only provides hackers opportunities to improve their skills and claim “bragging rights” among their peers, but it can also acts as a valuable resource for launching distributed attacks, distributing malware and defrauding visitors through information theft.
If hackers can hack into and gain stealth control of your website or blog, that site can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target other highly-valued web sites.
The truth is that hackers are most likely searching for exploits and trying to hack into your blog right now. Whether they can achieve this will depend on how hard or easy you have made things for them to keep trying until they can work out a way to get access, or give up and go look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(WP Security Check Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and details about your site setup …
(WP security check results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you are able to see all of this information about your WordPress site, hackers can too.
(Product image source: BlogDefender website)
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 are all potentially useful information to hackers, as this informs them about any holes or weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a simple way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother got hacked into. This particular site was not being used and had practically nothing to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being contacted by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred within his site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience demonstrates that every website has value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your web site are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite includes three plugins for WordPress:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and popular cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. FTP), perform complete 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.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your web site with security …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
Plugin #2 performs a range of essential website security functions (see “Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 lets you scan your files and content to see whether anything in your files has been modified, and fix any problems detected …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 people benefit from your work without providing anything of benefit in return).
Blog Defender – Video Tutorials
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender security suite also includes seven training modules in video format and training documentation that will show you exactly what to do to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender website)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed 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 Start Using In No Time
The plugins install like every plugin. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a training product that will take you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free WordPress plugins you should use to get things done without paying additional or unnecessary expenses.
Additional benefits and advantages include:
- Secure your website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If you are a digital product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Your Host – When a website gets hacked, you can expect to go through a serious amount of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, account can get suspended by your webhost, or even blacklisted in search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal details and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Features
Blog Defender offers many features to site owners.
Blog Defender helps you fix the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- Monitoring Files
- Monitoring Links
- Block Known Offenders
- Automate WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process to help protect your your WordPress installation, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Source: BlogDefender website)
Feedback From Customers
Below are a few of the testimonials plugin users have written about Blog Defender:
”Great way to secure your blog!” 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
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, no websites secured with the solution were hacked since Blog Defender was first released in 2012.
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 an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers presently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, won’t cost you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most premium 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, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Cost
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: Pricing details of Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current price when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Plugin Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Our Recommendation
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress software, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to malicious by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your responsibilities are as the site owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your sites are hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major WordPress security holes without paying a lot of money.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender
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