The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and things are 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 160,000+ WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
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)
According to security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your site provides no value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites provide an opportunity to benefit or profit at your expense.
If a hacker can exploit a web software vulnerability that allows them to gain any form of control of your website or blog, that website can then be employed to attack other valuable websites.
The reality is that software-driven bots are probably trying to break into your site as you are reading these very words. Whether they will be successful will depend on how hard or easy you will make things for hackers or bots to continue trying until they can discover how to get in, or are forced to give up and go look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Scan Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan will yield a number of results and details about your site …
(WordPress security scan results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can see all of this information about your website, then so can hackers.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
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 on your server are all valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about any exploitable security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender
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 developer of BlogDefender began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by its webhost. This blog had practically no value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred inside his server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Matt’s experience should be enough to convince you that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security holes in your website are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite comes with three WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
The plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud storage solutions using different backup methods, schedule full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text string replacements in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides your website with security …
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
Pro Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” provides a range of essential site protection functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 scans your content and files to see if anything in your files has been found, and fix the problem …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been added to your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your content without reciprocating the favor).
Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes training in video format plus printable documentation that teach you exactly what to do to protect your website from hackers and bots …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below are just some of the many benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure
The plugins included with Blog Defender are really easy to install. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow step-by-step training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which plugins you can install for free to get things done.
Some additional benefits of the plugin include:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Secure Your Info Products – If you’re an info product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a website gets 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. In the meantime, your, account could get suspended by your webhost, or even blocked in search engines. Additionally, your contacts can be spammed, your subscriber list and financial details can be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender offers a number of great features to web site owners.
The product covers the following issues:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- 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 Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Link Tracking
- Block Known Offenders
- Automate Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process for securing your web site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky WP themes and plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image source: Blog Defender)
Feedback From Users
Here are just a few of the testimonials and feedback that plugin users have published about the Blog Defender solution:
”Great way to secure your blog!” 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 the plugin’s website, since Blog Defender’s first release, no Blog Defender-secured websites were hacked.
Matt Garrett 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.”
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 currently have access to. 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 web 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 risk-free, 30 day, complete refund guarantee.
Software 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.
Note: Current pricing for this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price above was current at the time this review was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the software seller when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing information here:
Additional Plugin Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use This Product
Regardless of the kind 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 website security.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WP core files, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security procedures such as the one 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 to help prevent your sites being attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your installation easier.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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