The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and it’s only going to get 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 began reporting that over 160,000+ WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Source: Blog Defender)
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 leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your site offers no value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites provide an opportunity to benefit or profit at your expense.
If a hacker can find a security weakness, your blog can then be employed to target larger and more highly-valued sites.
The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are scouring for vulnerabilities and trying to break into your web site while you are reading this page. Whether they can hack in successfully or not, depends on how difficult you have made things for hackers to keep persisting until they work out a way to get access, or decide to look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(WP Security Scan Source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check will return a number of results and information about your site …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security check results. Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you are able to see all of this information about your WordPress website, hackers can too.
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
The ability 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 on your server can all be useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about any exploitable security weaknesses, especially in older 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 Security Suite
Product Description
The product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by the webhost. This blog had practically no value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within the site, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files designed to lure visitors to the site and steal their Paypal account details.
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
Matt’s experience illustrates the fact that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you web site for potential security vulnerabilities …
And let’s you fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
The product suite includes 3 WordPress plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
This plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and leading cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods, automate complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do mass text replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your web site with security …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
This plugin provides a range of vital website security functions (see “Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan your plugins, themes, WP core files and content to see if any of your files have been altered, and repair the problem …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 people benefit from your work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Video Tutorials
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes video guides and training documentation that will show you exactly how to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
Learn more here:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Configure
The Blog Defender plugins install just like every other plugin. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP admin area and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a 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 plugins you can install for free to get the job done.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Secure your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If you’re an info product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Your Host – When a site has been hacked, you can expect to go through a great deal of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. Your, website or blog can get suspended by your host, or even blacklisted in search engines. And if that isn’t enough to have to deal with, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal details or financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Features
Blog Defender was created to keep your sites and your business safe and secure 24/7.
Blog Defender addresses the following security areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- 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
- Monitor Files
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps for securing your web site, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot: Blog Defender)
Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials and feedback plugin customers have written 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 Matt Garrett’s site, no websites or blogs using Blog Defender were hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
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.”
Cybersecurity is is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers presently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, won’t cost a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most web 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, 100% refund guarantee.
Plugin 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: Pricing for Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the software is selling for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software seller when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
What We Recommend
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot afford to ignore the importance of securing your websites.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like making sure that your WP software, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting security procedures such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what your security responsibilities as a website owner 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 how to avoid all the major WordPress security holes without costly solutions.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
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