The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation is getting worse.
You can safely 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 over 162,000 WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image source: 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 WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every web site with a vulnerability provides some value opportunity to hackers. No blog is completely safe from cyber attacks. Corporate web sites, personal blogs, government sites … even websites owned by online security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If hackers can discover a security opening that lets them gain control of your website or blog, the website can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyberattack against more valuable sites.
The truth is that brute-force software bots are most likely trying to hack into your website as you are reading this right now. Whether they will hack in or not, depends on how hard you will make things for hackers or botnets to continue trying until they can find a way to get access, or are forced to give up and go look for an easier target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Check Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check will display various results and information about your site …
(Hackertarget – WP security check results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to see all of this information, then hackers can too.
(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 in your site are all useful information to hackers, as this informs them about potentially exploitable security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender WordPress Security Product Suite
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress 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 got hacked into and suspended by its hosting company. This particular site was fairly new and had literally no value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being contacted by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside his server, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience shows that 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, easily and inexpensively …
Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite includes 3 WordPress plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #1 lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud-based backup solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. FTP), schedule 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 strings in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 provides your site with security …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
This plugin performs a range of website security functions (see “Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” lets you scan your files and content to detect if anything has been changed, and fix the problem …
(Product image: 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 people benefit from your hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes 7 step-by-step video training modules and written documentation that will teach you exactly what to do to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
Learn more here:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Quick & Easy Installation
The plugins are really easy to install. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your administrator area and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a DIY step-by-step training product that guides you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free WordPress plugins you should install to get things done inexpensively.
Some additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Secure Your Info Products – If you’re an information product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Web Host And Banned By Search Engines – When a site has been hacked, you can expect to go through a great deal of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, website can get closed by your host, or even blocked by search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Features
Blog Defender was designed to locks down your site and keeps your business safe and secure 24/7.
The product addresses the following areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- 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
- Monitor Files
- Link Tracking
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate Core WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process for securing your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Feedback From Customers
Here are some of the testimonials and feedback users have written about Blog Defender:
”Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re too small or not important enough to be hacked! I’ve found out that I’ve had bots in the backend of my sites, making alterations and changing things around, so there’s no telling what damage they’ve caused. I’ve had my main blog for over 3 years now, and the thought of losing all the hard work I’ve put into it is just devastating, not to mention costly! I have a shared hosting plan, so of course once they can get into one site, they can also access the others. Luckily, I now have the procedures detailed within Blog Defender in place so that I can prevent the majority of this ever happening again. Once you’ve secured one site it gets a lot quicker to secure all subsequent sites. With Blog Defender, you get easy-to-follow videos, along with a detailed checklist that you can downloadf. You are literally walked through the process of securing your blog against hackers, which has given me real peace of mind. This is a growing issue that all website owners are facing; so it isn’t going to go away. Prevention is better than cure, particularly as some of the nastier hacks around can literally ruin your business. So do yourself a favour – get your sites protected now, before it’s too late.” Nikki Stephens, www.nikkistephens.com
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”Just one tip could have prevented my blogs getting hacked!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012, no websites using Blog Defender were hacked.
The product developer 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 is a never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers can currently access. 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 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 no-risk, 30 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.
Note: Pricing details of the Blog Defender plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin is selling for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the product developer when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Our Recommendation
Regardless of the 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 very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to malicious by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you understand what’s going on in your site and where the security holes 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 how to avoid all the major WordPress security holes without paying a lot of money.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender WordPress Security Suite
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