The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and things are getting worse.
You can safely 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+ legitimate WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image 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)
As described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website or blog is of no interest to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites provide an opportunity to profit or benefit at your expense.
If a malicious user can exploit a way to gain complete control of your website or blog, that web site can then be used to attack larger and more highly-valued websites.
The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are most likely searching for security weaknesses and trying to hack into your site while you are reading this article at this very moment. Whether they can be successful or not, will depend on how difficult or easy you have made things for hackers to continue persisting until they can discover a way to break in, or decide to look for an easier 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 …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Check Screenshot image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test returns various results and information about your WordPress site …
(Hackertarget – WP security scan results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can freely access all of this information about your website, so can hackers.
(Product image source: 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 on your server are all valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about potentially exploitable vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender WordPress Security Solution
Product Description
The product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress 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 blog he set up for his mother got hacked into. This particular site was almost brand new and had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual 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 their financial information.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
Matt’s experience demonstrates that every website has value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for security holes …
And then shows you how to quickly fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 WordPress plugins:
Plugin #1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
This plugin lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and cloud-based backup solutions using different backup methods (e.g. Email), perform full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to new domains or server locations), do bulk text replacements in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
The second plugin provides your website or blog with security …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
The plugin performs a range of site and file protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Plugin #3 allows you to scan your content and files to see whether your source code has been altered, and repair the problem …
(Image source: 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 others benefit from your work without offering anything of benefit in return).
Step-By-Step Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes step-by-step videos and printable guides that teach you exactly what to do to protect your website from malicious users …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
Go here to learn more:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages 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 plugins install just like any other WP plugin. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugins to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a practical training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which plugins you can use for free to get things done inexpensively.
Additional benefits include:
- Protect your site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Prevent Your Info Products From Being Stolen – If your site sells a digital product (e.g. downloadable e-books, video training, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a site has been hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. As a result, your, web presence can get closed by your webhost, or even blocked in search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal details and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Features
Blog Defender make your your website or blog invisible to hackers and bots.
The product addresses the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress 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 Blocking
- Monitoring Files
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help protect your your WordPress installation, addressing hosting security, using tools to identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Product image source: BlogDefender website)
User Feedback
Below are some of the testimonials customers have published about Blog Defender:
”Great way to secure your blog!” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.com
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“Sure wish I’d had this before I lost over a dozen blogs just recently!” Kathe Lucas – www.wackycentral.com
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012, no Blog Defender-secured sites have been hacked.
Matt Garrett, 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.”
Cybersecurity is an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers can currently harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than most premium security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Blog Defender 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, complete refund guarantee.
Product 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.
Please Note: The price of Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current price when this article was written. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use This Product
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of web security.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like making sure that your WordPress installation, WordPress plugins and WP themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help 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 website is attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major WordPress security holes without costly solutions.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Plugin
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