The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and this 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 inevitable that at some point in time someone will attempt to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 162,000 WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot source: 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)
As reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website offers little to no value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites are valuable to a malicious user.
If hackers can discover a web security flaw, the website or blog can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyberattack against more highly-valued web sites.
The truth is that malicious bots are most likely looking for vulnerabilities and trying to break into your website or blog while you are reading these very words. Whether they can hack into your site or not, will depend on how difficult you can make things for hackers to continue trying until they can discover a way to get access, or decide to look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Scan Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test will return a number of results and information about your site …
(WP security check results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you are able to access all of this information about your WordPress site, then hackers can too.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
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 can all be useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about potential security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and protect 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 to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This blog had literally no value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being informed by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within his site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his site.
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience demonstrates that all websites have value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security holes in your WordPress installation are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite of products comes with three WordPress plugins:
Plugin #1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud-based backup solutions using different backup methods (including FTP and email backups), schedule full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to different domains or server locations), do bulk text string replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides your website or blog with security …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
The plugin provides a range of essential site and file security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan your content and files to detect if any of your files have been altered, and repair any problems detected …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
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 any reciprocal value or benefit in return).
Blog Defender – Step-By-Step Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender security suite also includes seven videos plus printable guides that teach you exactly how to protect your website from malicious users …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
More info:
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 site:
Easy Installation
The Blog Defender plugins install like every WP plugin. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WordPress administrator section and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a DIY step-by-step training product that guides you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free plugins to use to get things done inexpensively.
Additional benefits include the following:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If you sell an info product (e.g. downloadable e-books, video training, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a website has been hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. As a result, your, web presence could get closed by your host, or even blacklisted in search engines. And if this is not painful enough, 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 a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender hide your website or blog from hackers and malicious botnets.
Blog Defender provides fixes for the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- 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
- Monitoring Files
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process for securing your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Image source: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials
Here are just some testimonials customers have provided for Blog Defender:
”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
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012, no Blog Defender-secured websites or blogs were hacked.
The product developer 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 developers can currently harness. 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 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 no-risk, thirty day, full money-back 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: The cost of purchasing the Blog Defender software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current pricing when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Plugin Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
We Recommend
No matter what type 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 secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress core files, WP plugins and themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to malicious by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your responsibilities are as the website owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your website is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major security risks without paying a lot of money.
For more details, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender
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