The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and it’s only going to get worse.
It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’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 over 162,000 WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your site is of no interest to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites provide an opportunity to benefit or profit at your expense.
If hackers can discover a weakness in your security, your blog can then be used as a “bot” in a planned cyberattack against larger and more highly-valued websites.
The truth is that brute-force software bots are very likely looking for weaknesses and trying to break into your blog right now. Whether they can get in successfully will depend on how difficult or easy you have made things for hackers to continue trying until they find how to break in, or give up and decide to look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Website Security Check Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and information about your site …
(WP security scan results. Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you can freely access all of this information about your site, then so can hackers.
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
Being able 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 on your server can all be potentially valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about potentially exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the creator of the BlogDefender security suit began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by its hosting company. This particular blog had practically nothing to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place inside his site, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Source: BlogDefender site)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your WordPress installation are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
The product suite includes 3 plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do secure backups to your server, third-party servers and leading cloud-based backup solutions using a number of backup methods, perform full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” provides WordPress security …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
The plugin performs a range of essential site security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Plugin #3 scans your files and content to detect whether any code in your files has been changed, and repair the problem …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
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 people benefit from your content without offering any benefit in return).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes a number of step-by-step tutorial videos and training guides that show you exactly what to do to protect your website from hackers …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Go here to learn more:
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:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
The Blog Defender plugins install like any other plugin. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP administrator area and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free WordPress plugins to install to get things done without paying for additional expenses.
Some additional benefits and advantages include:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you are an information product creator (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Web Host And Deindexed By Search Engines – When a site has been hacked, 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. As a result, your, website can get closed by your webhost, or even blacklisted in search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides many great features to web site owners.
The product covers the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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
- File Monitoring
- Monitor Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter 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 potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Source: BlogDefender site)
Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials and comments plugin customers have written about Blog Defender:
”Great way to secure your blog!” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.com
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”My business is built around the WordPress platform and I’m embarrassed to admin I’ve been slack in the security department. However, Matt’s training soon put that right! I followed each detailed video to the letter and discovered some incredible security tricks and plugins I’d never heard of before. Better still, all the plugins were free to download too! The end result? My WordPress membership site is now locked down tighter than Parkhurst at midnight and if anybody tries hacking it, I’ll be the first to know! thanks again Matt, I’m off to secure the rest of the blogs in my portfolio!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, no sites using Blog Defender have been hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
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.”
Cybersecurity is an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools that developers can access. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, won’t cost a fortune and it’s as good if not better than many web 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 no-risk, 30 day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Please Note: Pricing details of this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing shown above was current when this content was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the software developer when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing information here:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Our Recommendation
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of web security.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, WordPress plugins and themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you learn what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your site is hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress installation easier.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Plugin
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