The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide 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 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 162,000 WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot: 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 WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your site provides little to no value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, every website provides an opportunity to gain some benefit at your expense.
If a malicious user can hack into and remotely take control of your site, that web site can then be used to attack other valuable websites.
The harsh reality is that malicious bots are looking for security exploits and trying to break into your web site as you are reading this article at this very moment. Whether they will break into your site successfully will depend on how challenging you can make it for them to keep persisting until they discover a way to get access, or give up and go look for a less secure target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Check Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and information about your website …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security scan results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this scanning tool that if you can access all of this information, hackers can too.
(Screenshot source: 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 can all be valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about potential security vulnerabilities, especially where the owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress Web Sites
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by its hosting company. This particular blog had literally no value to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and observing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place within the server, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to lure visitors to the site and hijack Paypal account details.
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
This simple example shows that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for potential security weaknesses …
And then shows you how to easily fix these …
WP Plugins
The product suite comes with three WordPress plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Product image source: BlogDefender website)
This plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and cloud solutions using different backup methods (e.g. Email), automate 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 malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 provides a range of site and file protection functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan your content and files to detect if any code in your files has been modified, and repair problems …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender product suite also includes a number of step-by-step training videos and PDF/DOC documentation that teach you exactly what you need to do to protect your website from hackers …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
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 Use
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product are very easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugin folder via your admin user section and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow DIY step-by-step training product that will guide you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free plugins you should install to get the job done inexpensively.
Some additional plugin benefits include:
- Protect your site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Theft – If you are an info product author (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Suspended By Your Web Host And Deindexed By Search Engines – When a site is hacked, you can 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. In the meantime, your, websites can be closed by your webhost, or even blocked in search engines. Additionally, 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 much more.
Features
Blog Defender make your your website or blog invisible to hackers and malicious bots.
The product helps you fix the following security areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- 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
- Monitoring Files
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps to help secure your site, addressing hosting security, using tools to identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback plugin customers have provided for the Blog Defender solution:
”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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”In the past month alone, I’ve had 3 niche blogs hacked, costing me hundreds of dollars in lost sales – all of which could have been avoided if I followed the steps in this training. I can tell you, there’s nothing worse than spending months building up a blog, adding posts every few days, and then finding it all gone in an instant. The great thing about these ‘over the shoulder’ videos is that you get to see exactly how to do everything, so it doesn’t matter if you’re technically challenged. Just copy what you see on the screen, and then relax knowing your blogs are safe. (Just one of the tips in the first video alone could probably have prevented my blogs getting hacked) I even noticed one or two tips in there that help with SEO too … so following these videos could even bring your blogs more traffic!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, no Blog Defender-protected sites have been hacked since Blog Defender’s release in 2012.
Matt 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 tools developers currently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than many web 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 no-risk, 30 day, full 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: The cost of purchasing the Blog Defender product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the plugin sells for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the software author 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 Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer 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, securing your sites is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, WordPress 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 Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what your security responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major security risks without investing in expensive solutions.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Solution
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