The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and things are 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.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 162,000 WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
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)
According to security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website is of little value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites are an opportunity to benefit at your expense.
If someone can break in and gain remote access and control of your blog, the site can then be used to target larger and more valued websites.
The reality is that hackers are most likely scouring for exploits and trying to hack into your website or blog while you are reading this article. Whether they will successfully break into your site or not, depends on how hard you will make things for hackers and botnets to keep trying until they either discover how to break in, or give up and go look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information About Your 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 scan …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Check Product image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the scan will display various results and information about your website setup …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security check results. Product 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 about your website, hackers can too.
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
Being able 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 are all potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about potential security vulnerabilities, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and make your site invisible to malicious attackers and bots.
Blog Defender
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 site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended. This blog had practically nothing 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 suspicious activity had occurred within his site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to drive visitors to the site and steal financial information.
(Source: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience should be enough to illustrate the fact that every website has value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security weaknesses in your web site are …
And then shows you how to quickly and easily fix these …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
The product suite includes 3 WordPress plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 lets you do automated backups to your server, third-party servers and leading cloud-based backup solutions using different backup methods, perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do mass text replacements in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides your website with security …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides a range of site security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Plugin #3 allows you to scan your files and content to see if any of your files have been tampered with, and fix any problems it detects …
(Source: Blog Defender)
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 work without reciprocating the favor).
Video Tutorials
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender WP security suite also includes 7 video training modules and printable documentation that show you exactly how to protect your site from malicious users …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
For more details go here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Ready To Use In No Time
The Blog Defender plugins install like any other plugin. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that guides you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which WordPress plugins you can install for free to get the job done.
Additional benefits include:
- Protect your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, 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 your site sells an information product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Search Engines – When a site has been hacked, expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. As a result, your, web presence could get suspended by your webhost, or even blacklisted in search engines. And if that is not enough to have to deal with, your contacts could be spammed, your customer 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 make your your WordPress site invisible to hackers and bots.
The product addresses the following security areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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 Blocking
- Monitor Files
- Link Tracking
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process to help secure your site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
User Feedback
Below are some of the testimonials customers 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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”Since working with blogs, I… like many others, have been concerned about how to handle the constant threat of blog attacks. After having a look at Blog Defender you can’t help but become most aware of the vulnerable areas all bloggers need to protect. Blog Defender is viable WordPress blog security prevention system that offers video instruction along with 3 software plugins that are free to download. The instruction shows the optimum settings on how to use the free plugins that will allow you top level force against blog hacker attacks.” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, since Blog Defender was first released, no Blog Defender-protected sites were hacked.
Matt Garrett, the product developer 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 tools that developers currently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, won’t cost you a fortune 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 risk-free, thirty day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Price
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.
Please Note: Pricing for the Blog Defender software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing above was correct when this review was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, 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, web security is something you cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like making sure that your WP software, WordPress plugins and themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security policies like the one Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your websites are hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your site easier.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Product Suite
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