The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and the situation is getting worse.
It’s probably safe to 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 reported that over 162,000 WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every web site with a vulnerability presents an opportunity to hackers. A vulnerable site offers hackers with a platform to launch DDoS attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft.
If someone can exploit a way to access and take over your blog, the website or blog can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target more valuable sites.
The harsh reality is that hackers are trying to break into your web site right now. Whether they will break in successfully or not, will depend on how difficult or easy you have made it for hackers to continue trying until they can find how to get in, or decide to 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 a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Check Image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and details about your site …
(WordPress security check results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can see all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
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 are all valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about any potential security vulnerabilities, especially where site owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and help to protect it against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress
Product Description
Blog Defender 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 began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended. This particular blog was new and had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being suspended by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within his site, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to drive visitors to the site and hijack their Paypal account details.
(Product image source: BlogDefender website)
Matt’s experience should be enough to illustrate the fact that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for security holes …
And let’s you quickly and easily fix these …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
This plugin lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and leading cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods, schedule complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 provides WordPress security …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
The plugin provides a range of essential site and file protection functions (see “Features” section below).
The third plugin scans your plugins, themes, WP core files and content to see whether anything unusual in your source code has been modified, and fix any problems it finds …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 people benefit from your work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Video Training
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes video guides and training guides that will show you exactly how to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Go here to learn more:
Plugin Benefits
Here are 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:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
The plugins are very easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugins folder via your admin user account and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free plugins you should install to get the job done without paying for additional costs.
Some additional benefits and advantages include:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products – If you sell info products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid Getting Blacklisted By Your Host – When a website is hacked, you can expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. Your, website or blog can get closed by your host, or even blocked in search engines. And if that is not painful enough, your contacts could be spammed, your customer list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Features
Blog Defender provides many unique features to WP users.
Blog Defender covers the following areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- File Monitoring
- Monitoring Links
- Block Known Offenders
- Automating WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process to help secure your site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to quickly identify risky themes and plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Feedback From Users
Here are some of the testimonials plugin customers 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
***
”I discovered some incredible security tricks!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin’s site, since Blog Defender was first released in 2012, no Blog Defender-protected websites 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 is a never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers can currently harness. 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 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, 30 day, full money-back guarantee.
Product Pricing
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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: The cost of purchasing Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the software sells for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
The Bottom Line
Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot ignore the importance of website security.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WP core files, WP plugins and WordPress themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your security responsibilities are as the site owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your websites are compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your site easier.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress
***
***