The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and things are 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 160,000+ legitimate WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked 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 described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website or blog with a vulnerability can be an opportunity to hackers. If you think that your website or blog offers little to no value to hackers, think again. Large, medium and small business sites, personal blogs, government sites … even sites owned by online security experts can and have been targeted.
If someone can access and gain any form of control of your website, the blog can then be employed as a “bot” to attack other highly-valued websites.
The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are most likely searching for vulnerabilities and trying to hack into your website while you are reading this right now. Whether they will hack in successfully depends on how challenging you will make things for hackers to continue persisting until they discover a way to break in, or are forced to decide to look for a less secure target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Check Screenshot image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test returns a number of results and information about your website setup …
(Hackertarget – WP security check results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can freely access all of this information about your WordPress website, hackers can too.
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
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 can all be valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable vulnerabilities, especially where site owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender Security Solution
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by its hosting company. This site was not being used and so had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being contacted by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place within his site, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Source: BlogDefender site)
This simple example provides the valuable lesson that every website has some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for potential security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The Blog Defender security product suite includes 3 plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
This plugin lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and cloud backup solutions using different backup methods (e.g. FTP), perform complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from 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 website with security …
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
This plugin performs a range of vital website security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 scans your files and content to detect if any of your files have been modified, and repair any problems it finds …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your work without providing you any benefit in return).
Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes 7 step-by-step video training modules plus written documentation that will teach you exactly how to protect your website from malicious attacks …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Quick And Easy To Install And Implement
The Blog Defender plugins are really easy to install. Simply upload them to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow DIY step-by-step training product that will guide you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which plugins you can use for free to get the job done without paying extra costs.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products From Being Shared Around The Net – If you sell a digital product (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Search Engines – When a site is hacked, you should expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, sites could get closed by your webhost, or even blacklisted in search engines. And if that is not enough to have to deal with, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Features
Blog Defender hide your website from hackers and malicious botnets.
The product covers the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Webhost 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 Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Link Monitoring
- Block Known Offenders
- Automate WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process for securing your web site, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and WP plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials From Users
Below are a few of the testimonials and comments users have published about 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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”Just one tip could have prevented my blogs getting hacked!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, since Blog Defender’s first release, no Blog Defender-secured sites were hacked.
Matt 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 an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, won’t cost you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than many web security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
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.
Product Licensing Price
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.
Note: Pricing details of Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the plugin is being retailed for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller 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 installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use This Product
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like making sure that your WP installation, plugins and themes are kept 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.
Adopting a security policy such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand 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 compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major WordPress security holes without paying a lot of money.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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