The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s 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 162,000 WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Could yours 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)
According to security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every site with a vulnerability presents an opportunity to hackers. If you think that the information in your website offers little to no value to hackers, think again. Large, medium and small web sites, personal blogs, government web sites … even sites owned by web security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If someone can hack into and gain remote access of your blog, your site can then be used as a “bot” to attack larger and more highly-valued websites.
The harsh reality is that brute-force software bots are trying to break into your website or blog while you are reading this article at this very moment. Whether they will be successful will depend on how difficult or easy you can make it for hackers or bots to keep persisting until they either can discover how to get access, or give up and go 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 scan …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Scan Product image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will yield various results and information about your WordPress site …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security check results. Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can access all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
The ability to see what version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories are all potentially useful information to hackers, as this informs them about potential vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and protect against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This particular site was new and so had practically nothing to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside the server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his site.
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
This example should be enough to convince you that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security holes in your WordPress installation are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – Plugins
Blog Defender includes three plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
This plugin lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, external servers and leading cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. Email), schedule full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text strings in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” provides WordPress security …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 provides a range of vital website protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 scans your WP plugins, themes, WordPress core files and content to see whether code in your files has been altered, and fix any problems it uncovers …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been added to 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 – Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes training in video format and training documentation that teach you exactly how to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
More info:
Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Really Easy To Install
The plugins included with Blog Defender are very easy to install. Simply upload them to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a training product that will guide you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which plugins you can use for free to get things done.
Some additional plugin benefits include:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products – If you sell an information product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Web Host And Banned By Search Engines – When a site gets hacked, you can expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. During this time, your, website could be suspended by your webhost, or even blacklisted in search engines. Additionally, your contacts can be spammed, your customer list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides many unique features to WP users.
The product covers the following areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress 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
- Monitoring Files
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core WordPress 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 protect your site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky WordPress themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image: BlogDefender site)
User Testimonials
Here are just some testimonials that customers have written about the Blog Defender plugin:
”Great way to secure your blog!” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.com
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”I discovered some incredible security tricks!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender was first released, no sites using Blog Defender have been hacked.
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.”
The war on hackers is an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and technologies that developers presently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than most premium security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Blog Defender 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, complete refund guarantee.
Software 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: The cost to purchase Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing shown above was correct when this article was published. This may not be the actual price set by the software seller when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
We Recommend
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 secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, WP plugins and themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting a security policy such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major WordPress security holes without costly solutions.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress Websites
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