The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and things are getting worse.
You can safely 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 reported that over 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Image: Blog Defender)
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 the information in your site offers 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 discover a security vulnerability, your web site can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyberattack against larger and more valued web sites.
The reality is that malicious bots are trying to hack into your website while you are reading this page at this very moment. Whether they will hack into your site successfully or not, will depend on how hard you will make it for hackers to keep trying until they work out a way to get in, or are forced to decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Check Image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test will yield various results and information about your website setup …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the scanning tool that if you can see all of this information about your blog, so can hackers.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
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 can all be valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about potential vulnerabilities, especially where site owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the creator of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This particular blog was fairly new and so 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 seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred inside his site, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
This simple example illustrates the fact that every website has value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security weaknesses in your website are …
And then shows you how to easily fix these …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
Blog Defender comes with 3 WordPress plugins:
The first plugin in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated backups to your server, external servers and cloud-based backup solutions using different backup methods (including FTP and email backups), automate full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to new domains or server locations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
The second plugin provides WordPress security …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
The plugin performs a range of site protection functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 scans your WP plugins, WP themes and core files to see whether any code in your files has been altered, and fix any problems it detects …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been inserted into 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).
Blog Defender – Step-By-Step Tutorial Videos
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes seven video tutorial modules and printable guides that show you exactly what to do to protect your website from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Configure
The plugins are really easy to install. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress administrator section and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a practical and useful 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 plugins you can install for free to get the job done without incurring additional costs.
Additional benefits include the following:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Secure Your Info Products – If you are an info product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Closed By Your Web Host And Delisted By Search Engines – When a website has been hacked, you should expect to go through a great deal of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, web presence can get suspended by your host, or even deindexed in search engines. And if this isn’t enough to have to deal with, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details and financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Features
Blog Defender make your your website invisible to hackers and malicious botnets.
Blog Defender helps you fix the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- 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
- Monitor Files
- Monitor Links
- Block Known Offenders
- Automate WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process to help protect your site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
Feedback From Plugin Users
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback users have written about Blog Defender:
”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
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, no sites secured by the solution were hacked since Blog Defender’s release.
Matt states on his site, however …
“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 can get their hands on. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier 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.
Blog Defender Plugin 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, complete refund 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.
Note: Pricing for the Blog Defender plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing shown above was correct at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin developer when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Get The Product
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your web sites is something you cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, WordPress plugins and themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you understand what your security responsibilities are as the site owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your websites are attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major WordPress security holes without costly solutions.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
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