The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and things are only going to get worse.
It’s probably safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’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! Could your website be next?
(Screenshot image: 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 WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website or blog with a vulnerability can be seen as a potential opportunity to hackers. A vulnerable site not only offers wannabe hackers opportunities to improve their skills and claim “bragging rights” among their peers, but it can also serve as a platform for stealth attacks, distributing malware and defrauding users through information theft.
If a hacker can find a security flaw in your system and remotely control your website, the site can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against larger and more valued web sites.
The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are very likely trying to hack into your blog at this very moment. Whether they can achieve this will depend on how hard you will make things for hackers and bots to continue trying until they discover a way to get in, or give up and go look for a less protected target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Check Image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will return a number of results and information about your website …
(WordPress security check results. 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 site, then 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 can be potentially useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about any exploitable security weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the creator of the BlogDefender security suit began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This site was quite new and had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within the server, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files designed to drive visitors to the site and steal Paypal account details.
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
This example should be enough to convince you that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to quickly and easily fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite comes with three plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 lets you do secure backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to new domains or server locations), do mass text replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 provides your WordPress site with security …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #2 provides a range of site protection functions (see “Features” section below).
Plugin #3 allows you to scan WordPress sites to detect if any of your files have been altered, and fix any problems it detects …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” 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).
Video Tutorials
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes a number of training in video format plus training documentation that will show you exactly how to protect your site from hackers …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
More info:
Benefits
Here we have listed 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:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
The Blog Defender plugins install just like any regular WP plugin. Just upload them to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow DIY step-by-step training product that will take you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free WordPress plugins you should use to get the job done without incurring additional expenses.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Your Info Products From Being Shared Around The Net – If you’re an information product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Host – When a website gets hacked, you should expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, blog can get suspended by your host, or even blocked by search engines. Additionally, your contacts could be spammed, your subscriber list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Features
Blog Defender offers many features to web site owners.
The product covers the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- Monitoring Files
- Link Monitoring
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process to help secure your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image: BlogDefender website)
Testimonials From Plugin Users
Below are a couple of the testimonials that customers have provided for 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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”Just one tip could have prevented my blogs getting hacked!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, since Blog Defender’s first release, no Blog Defender-protected websites or blogs were hacked.
The product developer 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 is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers can get their hands on. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than many premium 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, 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: Pricing details of Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin seller when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use These Plugins
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your website or blog is something you cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, plugins and WordPress themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security procedures such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what your security responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major WordPress security holes without paying a lot of money.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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