The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and things are getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a vulnerability provides some type of opportunity to hackers. An unsecured blog not only provides hackers opportunities to improve their hacking skills and claim “bragging rights” from their peers, but it can also be a platform for launching stealth attacks, distributing malware and as a source of information theft.
If a hacker can exploit a software security flaw and compromise the control of your website or blog, the web site can then be employed as a “bot” to attack larger and more highly-valued websites.
The truth is that brute-force software bots are very likely trying to hack into your web site while you are reading this page. Whether they will hack into your site successfully or not, depends on how difficult you have made it for hackers to keep persisting until they work out a way to get in, or give up and go look for a less secure target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will display a number of results and details about your website …
(Hackertarget – WP security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to access all of this information about your blog, hackers can too.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
The ability to see what 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 potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about any vulnerabilities, especially where site owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This site was devoid of content and so had literally no value to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside the server, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to drive unsuspecting visitors to the site and steal their Paypal account details.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience shows that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you web site for potential security vulnerabilities …
And let’s you quickly fix these …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security product suite comes with 3 plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #1 lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and cloud-based 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), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides a range of essential file and site protection functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan WordPress sites to detect if any of your files have been modified, and repair the problem …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been added to your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your content without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes videos plus downloadable documentation that will show you exactly how to protect your website from malicious users …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
For more details, visit the plugin site 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 website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement
The Blog Defender plugins are really easy to install. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a practical training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which plugins you can install for free to get things done inexpensively.
Some additional benefits and advantages include:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Helps Avoid Intellectual Property Theft – If you’re a digital product author (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a site gets hacked, you should expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. Your, web presence could get suspended by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. And if that isn’t enough to have to deal with, your contacts could end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides many great features to website owners.
The product helps you fix the following issues:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress 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
- Monitor Files
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps to help protect your your WordPress installation, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials users have written about the Blog Defender plugin:
”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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”My business is built around the WordPress platform and I’m embarrassed to admin I’ve been slack in the security department. However, Matt’s training soon put that right! I followed each detailed video to the letter and discovered some incredible security tricks and plugins I’d never heard of before. Better still, all the plugins were free to download too! The end result? My WordPress membership site is now locked down tighter than Parkhurst at midnight and if anybody tries hacking it, I’ll be the first to know! thanks again Matt, I’m off to secure the rest of the blogs in my portfolio!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Plugin Tips
According to the product’s website, since Blog Defender’s first release, no Blog Defender-protected websites or blogs have been hacked.
Matt Garrett also states on his site, however …
“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 an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers presently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, won’t cost a fortune 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, thirty day, complete refund guarantee.
Software 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Please Note: Current pricing for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the product retails for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin 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 installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
We Recommend
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot ignore the importance of securing your web sites.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WP core files, WordPress plugins and WP 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 learn what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your site is hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major WordPress security holes without paying a lot of money.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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