The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and the situation is only going to get worse.
It’s safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image: 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 cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a vulnerability can be seen as an opportunity to hackers. A vulnerable web site not only presents hackers opportunities to improve their skills and claim “bragging rights” amongst their peers, but it can also serve as a resource for DDoS attacks, spreading malware and defrauding users through information theft.
If someone can exploit a way to gain stealth control of your website, that site can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target other highly-valued sites.
The truth is that hackers are probably searching for weaknesses and trying to hack into your site while you are reading this page right now. Whether they can be successful will depend on how hard or easy you have made things for hackers or bots to keep persisting until they either can discover how to get access, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(WordPress Security Scan Screenshot source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the scan returns various results and details about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – website security scan results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this scanning tool that if you can see all of this information, so can hackers.
(Image source: Blog Defender)
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 are all useful information to hackers, as this informs them about exploitable vulnerabilities, especially where site owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender
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 developer of BlogDefender began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This particular site had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being suspended by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place within the site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting visitors to the site and hijack their Paypal account details.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that all websites have value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for security weaknesses …
And let’s you easily fix these …
Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite of products includes 3 plugins for WordPress:
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
The plugin lets you do automated backups to your server, external servers and leading cloud-based storage solutions using different backup methods (e.g. FTP), automate full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides your website or blog with security …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
This plugin performs a range of vital file and site security functions (see “Features” section below).
The third plugin scans your plugins, themes and core files to see if anything in your files has been changed, and fix any problems detected …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been inserted into your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes 7 step-by-step video tutorial modules and printable guides that will teach you exactly what to do to protect your site from hackers …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Benefits
Below 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 web site:
Be Up And Running In No Time
The plugins are really easy to install. Simply upload them to your Plugin folder via your admin user section and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a DIY training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which WordPress plugins you can use for free to get things done without incurring unnecessary costs.
Additional benefits of this plugin include the following:
- Protect your site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products From Theft – If you sell an information product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Host – When a website is hacked, you can expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, website could get suspended by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender offers many features to site owners.
Blog Defender covers the following issues:
- 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
- Monitor Files
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process for securing your web site, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials From Users
Here are some of the testimonials and feedback that plugin users have provided for the Blog Defender security products:
”Great way to secure your blog!” 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 the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, no Blog Defender-protected sites were hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
Matt 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 constant game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers presently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than most 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 no-risk, 30 day, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin Cost
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.. Cost = $47.00.
Please Note: The cost to purchase Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current pricing when this review was published. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin author when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing:
Additional Plugin Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WP installation, plugins and WordPress themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security procedures such as the one Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what your responsibilities are as a site owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress website easier.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Product Suite
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