The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and the situation is getting 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 over 160,000+ WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot: 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 described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website is of no interest to hackers, but the reality is that every website has value to a malicious user.
If a hacker can find a security flaw in your system that lets them remotely control your website, the web site can then be employed as a “bot” to attack other valued web sites.
The reality is that software-driven bots are probably scouring for security exploits and trying to hack into your blog at this very moment. Whether they will achieve this will depend on how difficult or easy you will make things for hackers to continue trying until they work out a way to get access, or give up and decide to look for a less protected 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 website through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Check Product image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test returns various results and information about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security scan results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can access all of this information about your WordPress website, then so can hackers.
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
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 in your site are all potentially useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about exploitable security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit 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 site was new and had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred inside the site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
This example is evidence that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you web site for security vulnerabilities …
And let’s you fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
Blog Defender comes with three plugins for WordPress:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #1 lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud-based storage solutions using different backup methods (e.g. FTP), perform full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides your WP website or blog with security …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #2 performs a range of essential site and file security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
The third plugin allows you to scan your plugins, themes and core files to see if anything has been altered, and repair any problems it finds …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 content without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Training Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes videos and written documentation that show you exactly how to protect your website from hackers …
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
Learn more here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here are 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 Go To Work In Minutes
The plugins included with Blog Defender install just like any WP plugin. Simply upload them to your Plugin folder via your admin login and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a do-it-yourself training product that will guide you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free plugins you should install to get the job done inexpensively.
Additional benefits of using this plugin include:
- Protect your site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products – If you’re an info product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a site gets hacked, you should expect to go through a serious amount of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. Your, site can be closed by your webhost, or even deindexed by search engines. In addition, your contacts could end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details could be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender provides many features to site owners.
The product addresses the following security areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- Monitor Files
- Monitoring Links
- Block Known Offenders
- Automate Core WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps to help secure your web site, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback that users have provided for the Blog Defender product:
”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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“Sure wish I’d had this before I lost over a dozen blogs just recently!” Kathe Lucas – www.wackycentral.com
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, no Blog Defender-secured websites or blogs were hacked since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012.
Matt Garrett also 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 is a constant game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools 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 many web security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
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, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
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.
Please Note: Pricing for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing above was correct when this content was published. This may not be the actual price charged by the software developer when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Download This Product
Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you cannot ignore.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WP core files, plugins and WordPress themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you understand what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if the security on your site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major WordPress security holes without investing in expensive solutions.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender
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