The sheer number 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 160,000+ legitimate WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image source: 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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every web site with a vulnerability offers some degree of value to hackers. If you think that the information in your website or blog offers little to no value to hackers, think again. Corporate sites, personal blogs, government websites … even websites owned by online security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If someone can find a vulnerability, that web site can then be employed as a “bot” to attack more valuable sites.
The harsh reality is that hackers are most likely trying to hack into your site while you are reading these very words. Whether they will successfully hack into your site or not, will depend on how hard or easy you will make things for hackers to continue trying until they either work out how 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 Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(WordPress Security Scan Image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the scan returns various results and information about your site …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security scan results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the scanning tool that if you are able to access all of this information, hackers can too.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
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 can all be valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about any potential security weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and make your site invisible to malicious attackers and botnets.
Blog Defender
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This particular blog was not being used and so had practically nothing to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being informed by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside the server, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting victims to the site and hijack Paypal account information.
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
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 WordPress installation are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
WordPress Plugins
The product suite comes with 3 WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, external servers and well-known cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. Email), automate complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text string replacements in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 provides your website or blog with security …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides a range of essential site and file protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Plugin #3 lets you scan your plugins, themes, WP core files and content to see if any of your files have been altered, and fix the problem …
(Source: Blog Defender)
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 others benefit from your hard work without offering anything of value in return).
Training Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender product suite also includes 7 step-by-step video training modules and printable guides that teach you exactly what you need to do to protect your website from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Learn more here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits 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 included in the Blog Defender product suite are quite easy to install. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugins to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself training product that will take you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free WordPress plugins you should use to get the job done without incurring unnecessary expenses.
Additional plugin benefits include:
- Protect your site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If you’re an info product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Search Engines – When a site is hacked, expect to go through a great deal of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, web presence can get suspended by your host, or even blocked by search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Features
Blog Defender make your your WordPress website or blog invisible to hackers and malicious bots.
Blog Defender covers the following areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress 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
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps to help protect your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
User Feedback
Here are some of the testimonials that plugin users have provided for the Blog Defender plugin:
“You are literally walked through the process!” Nikki Stephens, www.nikkistephens.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, no Blog Defender-secured websites have been hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
Matt 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 an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers presently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, won’t cost you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most premium 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, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Cost
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: Current pricing for this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product developer 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 latest pricing information here:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Our Recommendation
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot ignore the importance of securing your web sites.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like making sure that your WP core files, plugins and themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if the security on your website is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress installation easier.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Solution
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