The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and it’s getting worse.
You can safely 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 reported that 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(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)
As reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your site provides little to no value to hackers, but the reality is that every website has value to a malicious user.
If hackers can discover a web software vulnerability, that site can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyberattack against larger and more highly-valued websites.
The reality is that software-driven bots are probably looking for weaknesses and trying to break into your web site while you are reading this. Whether they will break into your site or not, depends on how hard you have made things for hackers and botnets to continue persisting until they work out how to get in, or give up and decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Website Security Scan Product image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will return various results and information about your WordPress setup …
(WordPress security scan results. Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to freely access all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Being able 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 can be potentially valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about potentially exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially where site owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended by the hosting company. This particular site had literally nothing to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside the site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that every website has some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you web site for potential security weaknesses …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The product suite includes 3 plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender website)
Plugin #1 lets you do automated backups to your server, external servers and well-known cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. FTP), schedule complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your 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.
Plugin #2 provides your web site with security …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 performs a range of website protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 lets you scan your files and content to detect whether your source code has been found, and repair any problems it finds …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
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 others benefit from your content without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Video Tutorials
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes step-by-step training in video format and printable guides that will show you exactly how to protect your website from hackers …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Quick Installation
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product install like every other plugin. Simply upload them to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin section and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free WordPress plugins to use to get things done without incurring extra costs.
Additional plugin benefits include:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If you’re an info product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Your Host – When a site gets hacked, expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, sites can get closed by your host, or even blocked in search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender provides many unique features to WP users.
Blog Defender helps you fix the following issues:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- 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
- Monitor Files
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help protect your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky WordPress themes and WP plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Source: Blog Defender)
Feedback From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials and comments customers have published about the Blog Defender security suite:
”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
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”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 the plugin developer, since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012, no websites or blogs protected by the solution have been 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.”
Cybersecurity is an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers can get their hands on. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’t cost a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most premium security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Plugin 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, full money-back guarantee.
Product Cost
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: The price of the Blog Defender software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was current at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product author when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use These Plugins
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot ignore the importance of securing your websites.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WP installation, WordPress plugins and themes up-to-date, tightening file and data protection 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 to help prevent your sites being hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major security risks without costly solutions.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender
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