The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and things are only going to get 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 over 162,000 WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(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 WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every web site with a vulnerability offers some value to hackers. A vulnerable website presents malicious users with a resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and use your website to steal information from others.
If someone can hack into and gain any form of control of your site, your website or blog can then be used as a “bot” to attack more valuable web sites.
The reality is that software-driven bots are scouring for weaknesses and trying to hack into your web site right now. Whether they can successfully get in will depend on how difficult or easy you have made things for hackers or botnets to continue persisting until they can find a way to break in, or are forced to give up and go look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site 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 display various results and details about your website setup …
(Hackertarget – website security scan results. Product 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 about your WordPress site, so can hackers.
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
Being able to see which 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 all be useful information to hackers, as this informs them about any exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
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 creator of the BlogDefender security suit began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This site was fairly new and so had practically nothing to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event 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 Paypal account information.
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
This simple example should be enough to illustrate the fact that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security holes in your web site are …
And then shows you how to easily fix these …
Plugins
The product suite comes with three plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
This plugin lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud storage solutions using different backup methods (e.g. FTP), perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 provides your site with security …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
The “WP Security” plugin provides a range of essential site and file security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 scans your content and files to detect whether anything in your files has been changed, and repair problems …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been added to 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 Training
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes seven video training modules and training guides that will show you exactly how to protect your website from malicious attacks …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Benefits
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 site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure
The plugins are quite easy to install. Just upload a zip file containing the plugins to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin section and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow step-by-step 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 install for free to get the job done.
Additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If your site sells an information product (e.g. downloadable e-books, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Search Engines – When a website gets hacked, expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, account could be closed by your webhost, or even deindexed in search engines. And if this is not enough to have to deal with, your personal contacts could end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender make your your WordPress website invisible to hackers and malicious botnets.
Blog Defender addresses the following security areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Tracking Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process to help protect your your WordPress installation, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Image source: BlogDefender website)
User Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials users have submitted regarding 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
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”I sure wish I’d had this before I lost over a dozen blogs just recently. Okay, it was my fault for not securing things more, BUT… I didn’t have a handy, current reference like this to turn to for quick help either.;)” Kathe Lucas – www.wackycentral.com
Useful Tips
According to the product’s website, no websites or blogs using Blog Defender have been hacked since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012.
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 is a never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers currently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require 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.
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, 30 day, full refund 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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: The price of the Blog Defender product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software is selling for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use This Product
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WordPress core files, plugins and WordPress themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help 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 website is hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your installation easier.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress
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