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 over 160,000+ WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Screenshot source: 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 WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every site with a security vulnerability has potential value to hackers. A compromised website or blog provides malicious users with a valuable resource for stealth attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft.
If someone can discover a weakness in your web software, your website or blog can then be used as a “bot” in a planned cyberattack against more valuable sites.
The reality is that hackers are very likely trying to break into your website or blog as you are reading this article. Whether they can achieve this or not, will depend on how hard you will make things for hackers and bots to keep persisting until they can discover a way to get in, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less secure target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Check Source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test will yield various results and information about your WordPress setup …
(Hackertarget – WP security scan results. Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can access all of this information, then so can hackers.
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Being able to see which 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 can inform them about any potential holes or weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress Websites
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 developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This particular site was almost brand new and had literally nothing to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being suspended by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within the server, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting visitors to the site and hijack Paypal account details.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your website are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
WordPress Plugins
The product suite comes with three plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
This plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud solutions using different backup methods (e.g. FTP), perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides WordPress security …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 provides a range of site and file protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 lets you scan your content and files to see whether any of your files have been tampered with, and fix any problems it detects …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
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 offering you anything of value in return).
Video Training
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender security product suite also includes a number of training videos and written guides that show you exactly how to protect your website from hackers …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Learn more here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Ready To Go To Work In Minutes
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product are very easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugins folder via your administrator section and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a step-by-step training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free plugins to install to get the job done without incurring unnecessary costs.
Some additional benefits include the following:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Secure Your Info Products – If you’re a digital product author (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Suspended By Your Web Host And Delisted By Search Engines – When a website is hacked, you can expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, website can be closed by your webhost, or even blacklisted by search engines. And if this isn’t painful enough, your contacts could end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender offers many great features to WP users.
The product covers the following security areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- 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 Blocking
- Monitor Files
- Monitoring Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps for securing your web site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Product image source: Blog Defender)
Testimonials From Plugin Customers
Below are just some 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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”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 the plugin developer, since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012, no Blog Defender-protected websites or blogs have been hacked.
The product developer 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.”
Cybersecurity is an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers presently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’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.
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, thirty day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin 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: The cost to purchase the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual price set by the product author when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use These Plugins
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot afford to ignore the importance of website security.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, plugins and WP themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security policies like the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your website is attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress installation easier.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Solution
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