The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and this is getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone attempts to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that over 160,000+ WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot 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)
As reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website has no significant value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites have some value to a malicious user.
If someone can discover a software vulnerability in your security and gain stealth control of your web site, your site can then be employed to target other highly-valued sites.
The reality is that hackers are most likely searching for security exploits and trying to hack into your web site as you are reading this page right now. Whether they can be successful will depend on how challenging you will make things for hackers or botnets to keep persisting until they can discover a way to get access, or give up and decide to look for a more vulnerable 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 scan …
(WordPress Security Check Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan will display a number of results and details about your website setup …
(website security check results. Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can see all of this information, hackers can too.
(Product 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 in your site can be useful information to hackers, as this informs them about potential holes or weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to malicious attackers and bots.
Blog Defender
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 developer of the BlogDefender security suit began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This blog was devoid of content and so had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place inside the server, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into his site.
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience should be enough to convince you that every website has value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you web site for security weaknesses …
And then shows you how to quickly fix these …
Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite comes with 3 plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and cloud-based backup solutions using different backup methods, perform complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore 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)
Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” performs a range of essential site and file protection functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” lets you scan your WordPress plugins, WordPress themes, core files and content to see if code in your files has been tampered with, and fix any problems detected …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been inserted into your site, 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 – Training Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender product suite also includes 7 video training modules plus PDF/DOC guides that will teach you exactly what to do to protect your website from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
Go here to learn more:
Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Ready To Start Using In Very Little Time
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite install just like any WordPress plugin. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow training product that will take you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free plugins you should install to get the job done without paying additional expenses.
Additional benefits of the plugin include:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Helps Avoid Intellectual Property Theft – If you are a digital product author (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a site has been hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. As a result, your, web presence can be closed by your webhost, or even deindexed by search engines. And if this isn’t painful enough, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Features
Blog Defender was designed to lock down your site and keep your business safe and secure 24/7.
The product helps you fix all of the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- Monitor Files
- Link Tracking
- Block Known Offenders
- Automate Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps to help secure your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and WP plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
User Feedback
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback that customers have written about the Blog Defender plugin:
”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
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, no Blog Defender-secured sites were hacked since Blog Defender’s original release.
Matt Garrett 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.”
Cybersecurity is is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers currently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, is quite inexpensive 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 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.
Please Note: Pricing details of Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price shown above was current at the time this article was published. This may or may not be the actual price set by the product seller when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Our Recommendation
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 simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, WordPress plugins and themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting a security procedure such as the one Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your sites are attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major WordPress security holes without investing in expensive solutions.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender
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