The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s 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 reported that 160,000+ legitimate WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image: 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 WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every web site with a security vulnerability offers some value to hackers. A vulnerable site not only offers newbie hackers opportunities to improve their hacking skills and win “respect” amongst their peers, but it can also serve as a platform for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft.
If a malicious user can find a security flaw that allows them to gain remote access of your website, that website can then be used as part of a larger network of “bots” to target larger and more highly-valued web sites.
The harsh reality is that malicious bots are looking for security exploits and trying to break into your website or blog as you are reading these very words. Whether they will hack in successfully depends on how difficult you will make things for them to keep trying until they can discover how to break in, or give up and 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 scan …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Check Screenshot source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will yield a number of results and information about your website …
(Hackertarget – website security check results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can see all of this information, then so can hackers.
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
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 in your site can be potentially useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to malicious users and bots.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This particular blog had practically no value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being contacted by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place inside his server, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files designed to lure visitors to the site and hijack financial details.
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience is evidence that every website has some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for potential security weaknesses …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite of products comes with three WordPress plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and leading cloud backup solutions using a number of backup methods, schedule complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to new domains or server locations), search and replace text in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #2 performs a range of vital site protection functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Plugin #3 allows you to scan your files and content to see if code in your files has been tampered with, and fix any problems it finds …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your content without offering anything in return).
Blog Defender – Training Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender product suite also includes 7 step-by-step video training modules plus written guides that show you exactly how to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Source: Blog Defender)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here we have listed just some of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite are very easy to install. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a practical 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 use for free to get the job done.
Additional benefits of using the plugin include the following:
- Protect 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.
- Helps Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you’re an information product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid Getting Suspended By Your Web Host And Deindexed By Search Engines – When a site is hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, sites could get suspended by your host, or even blocked by search engines. In addition, your personal 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 more.
Features
Blog Defender offers many features to WordPress users.
Blog Defender covers the following security areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress 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 Blocking
- Monitor Files
- Monitoring Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate Core WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process for securing your your WordPress installation, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Feedback From Users
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback users have published 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
***
”Since working with blogs, I… like many others, have been concerned about how to handle the constant threat of blog attacks. After having a look at Blog Defender you can’t help but become most aware of the vulnerable areas all bloggers need to protect. Blog Defender is viable WordPress blog security prevention system that offers video instruction along with 3 software plugins that are free to download. The instruction shows the optimum settings on how to use the free plugins that will allow you top level force against blog hacker attacks.” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender was first released in 2012, no Blog Defender-secured websites or blogs were hacked.
Matt Garrett 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 ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers currently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier 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.
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 no-risk, thirty day, 100% refund guarantee.
Product 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.
Please Note: The cost to purchase the Blog Defender plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing shown above was current when this review was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product seller when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing information here:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Our Recommendation
Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your website is something you simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress installation, WP plugins and themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you learn what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if the security on your website is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress site easier.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Suite
***
***