The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and things are getting worse.
It’s probably safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’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 began reporting that 162,000 WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Image source: 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 cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website is of little value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites provide an opportunity to gain some advantage at your expense.
If hackers can hack into and take over your site, that website can then be employed to attack other highly-valued websites.
The harsh reality is that hackers are very likely scouring for vulnerabilities and trying to hack into your site while you are reading this at this very moment. Whether they can hack into your site successfully or not, depends on how hard or easy you can make it for hackers to keep trying until they work out a way to break in, or are forced to decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Check Screenshot: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test will display various results and information about your site setup …
(WP security scan results. Screenshot: 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.
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
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 potentially useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about any exploitable security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and help to protect it against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of the BlogDefender security suit began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by the webhost. This site was fairly new and so had literally no value to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being contacted by his host and observing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within the site, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
This simple example illustrates the fact that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for security holes …
And then shows you how to quickly fix these …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
This plugin lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and popular cloud-based backup solutions using a number of backup methods, schedule full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to new domains or server locations), do bulk text replacements in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 provides WordPress security …
(Product image source: BlogDefender website)
Plugin #2 “WP Security” performs a range of vital site security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Plugin #3 lets you scan your WordPress plugins, themes, core files and content to detect whether any of your files have been tampered with, and repair any problems it detects …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your content without offering anything of value in return).
Video Tutorials
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes training in video format plus downloadable guides that will show you exactly what to do to protect your website from malicious users …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below 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 web site:
Ready To Use In No Time
The plugins install just like any plugin. Simply upload them to your Plugins folder via your admin user area and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a practical training product that guides you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free plugins to use to get the job done.
Some additional benefits and advantages include:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you sell information products (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a site is hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. Your, sites can be closed by your host, or even deindexed in search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details and financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Features
Blog Defender hide your website from hackers and malicious botnets.
Blog Defender helps you fix the following security areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- 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
- File Monitoring
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps for securing your site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and comments plugin customers have published 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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”I discovered some incredible security tricks!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012, no sites protected by the solution have been hacked.
Matt Garrett also 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 perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers currently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress 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.
Blog Defender 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, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
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: Current pricing for the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price shown above was current when this review was written. This may not be the actual price set by the product seller when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
For installation instructions 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, securing your site is something you simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to attacks by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you understand what your responsibilities are as the website owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do if the security on your site 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 complete details, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender Security Plugin
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