The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and this is only going to get worse.
It’s probably 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 reported that 160,000+ WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Screenshot source: 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 flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your site has no significant value to hackers, but the reality is that every website has value to a malicious user.
If a hacker can find a security weakness that lets them take over your site, your site can then be employed as a “bot” to attack more highly-valued web sites.
The reality is that hackers are most likely searching for weaknesses and trying to break into your site as you are reading this page. Whether they can break in depends on how challenging you can make things for hackers to continue persisting until they work out a way to get in, or give up and go look for an easier target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Scan Source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check will display a number of results and details about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security scan results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to access all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
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 on your server can all be potentially useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and help to protect it against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, 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 particular site had practically no value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being suspended by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within the site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to drive unsuspecting victims to the site and steal their financial details.
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
This example illustrates the fact that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your WordPress installation are …
And let’s you fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
Plugins
The product suite comes with 3 WordPress plugins:
Plugin #1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, external servers and popular cloud-based backup solutions using different backup methods (including FTP and email backups), schedule full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text strings in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides WordPress security …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” performs a range of essential file and site security functions (see “Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan your WordPress plugins, themes and WP core files to see whether code in your files has been tampered with, and fix problems …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been added to your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your content without reciprocating the favor).
Video Tutorials
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes 7 training modules in video format and PDF/DOC documentation that teach you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Ready To Use In Minutes
The Blog Defender plugins install like every WP plugin. Just upload a zip file containing the plugins to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself 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 use to get the job done without incurring unnecessary costs.
Some additional benefits of the plugin include the following:
- Secure your website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products – If you are an information product creator (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blacklisted By Search Engines – When a site gets 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. During this time, your, websites could be suspended by your webhost, or even blacklisted by search engines. In addition, your contacts can be spammed, your subscriber list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender offers a number of great features to web site owners.
The product helps you fix the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- Monitoring Files
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help secure your web site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky WordPress themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image source: BlogDefender website)
User Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials plugin customers have published about the Blog Defender plugin:
”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
***
”A top level force against hacker attacks!” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, no Blog Defender-secured websites or blogs have been hacked since Blog Defender’s release in 2012.
The product developer 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 knowledge and tools developers can access. 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 risk-free, 30 day, 100% refund guarantee.
Plugin Cost
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.
Please Note: The cost of purchasing Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the product sells for the prices shown above. 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 you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
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 simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like making sure that your WordPress core files, WordPress plugins and themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your website is hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major WordPress security holes without paying a lot of money.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress Websites
***
***