The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation is only going to get 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 before someone attempts to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 160,000+ WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot: 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 cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website or blog has no significant value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites provide an opportunity to gain some benefit at your expense.
If a malicious user can exploit a way to gain remote access and control of your website or blog, that blog can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target more highly-valued sites.
The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are most likely trying to break into your website while you are reading this page. Whether they can do this successfully or not, will depend on how hard you will make it for hackers and botnets to keep persisting until they can either discover how to get access, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less secure target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check will display various results and information about your WordPress site …
(website security scan results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can see all of this information, so can hackers.
(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 in your site are all potentially valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to malicious users and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Solution
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of the BlogDefender security suit began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by its hosting company. This blog had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
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 inside the site, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Matt’s experience demonstrates that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you web site for security weaknesses …
And then shows you how to quickly and easily fix these …
WordPress Plugins
Blog Defender comes with 3 plugins:
Plugin #1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, external servers and well-known cloud solutions using a number of backup methods, schedule full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to new domains or server locations), do mass text string replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” provides your web site with security …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
The plugin performs a range of site security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” lets you scan WordPress sites to detect if code in your files has been modified, and fix any problems it finds …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your hard work without providing anything of benefit in return).
Blog Defender – Video Training
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes a number of step-by-step video training and written documentation that will teach you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Source: BlogDefender website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Here 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 Simple To Install And Use
The plugins included with Blog Defender install like any other WordPress plugin. Simply upload them to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow DIY training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which WordPress plugins you can use for free to get the job done inexpensively.
Additional plugin benefits include:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you are an information product creator (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a website has been hacked, expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, sites can be 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 more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender hide your WordPress web site from hackers and malicious botnets.
The product covers the following security areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- WP 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 Blocking
- Monitor Files
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps to help protect your web site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials that users have submitted for Blog Defender:
“You are literally walked through the process!” Nikki Stephens, www.nikkistephens.com
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”A top level force against hacker attacks!” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, since the release of Blog Defender, no Blog Defender-protected sites have been hacked.
Matt Garrett, the product developer also 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 information and tools that developers can currently access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need 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.
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, 30 day, full refund guarantee.
Product Price
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.. Price = $47.00.
Please Note: Price details for Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price at the time this article was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin seller when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your websites is something you simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like making sure that your WP core files, plugins and WordPress themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your responsibilities are as a website owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your website is hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress installation easier.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender WordPress Security Solution
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