The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s only going to get worse.
It’s probably 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 reported that over 160,000+ WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image source: 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 WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website with a security vulnerability presents an opportunity to hackers. A vulnerable website or blog presents malicious users with a resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft.
If someone can access and gain stealth control of your website or blog, your website can then be used to target other highly-valued websites.
The truth is that brute-force software bots are looking for weaknesses and trying to break into your website or blog at this very moment. Whether they will achieve this depends on how hard you will make things for hackers to keep trying until they discover 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 WordPress Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Product image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan returns a number of results and details about your website setup …
(Hackertarget – WP security check results. Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can access all of this information about your website, so can hackers.
(Product image: 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 can all be potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Product Description
The product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This blog was quite new and had practically nothing to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within the site, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
This example shows that that every website has value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for potential security weaknesses …
And let’s you quickly and easily fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do secure backups to your server, external servers and cloud solutions using different backup methods, perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text string replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 provides your site with security …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 performs a range of site security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan your content and files to see if any of your files have been modified, and repair any problems it uncovers …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been inserted into your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your content without reciprocating the favor).
Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes several video training guides and printable guides that show you exactly what to do to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Implement
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product install just like every plugin. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your admin login and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a DIY step-by-step training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which plugins you can install for free to get the job done without incurring additional expenses.
Some additional benefits include:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products – If you are an info product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a website is hacked, you can expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, websites can get suspended by your webhost, or even blacklisted by search engines. And if that isn’t enough to have to deal with, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Features
Blog Defender was designed to locks down your site and keeps your business safe and secure 24/7.
The product addresses the following issues:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress 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
- File Monitoring
- Track Links
- Block Known Offenders
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process for securing your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and WP plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
User Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials that plugin customers have written about the Blog Defender product suite:
”Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re too small or not important enough to be hacked! I’ve found out that I’ve had bots in the backend of my sites, making alterations and changing things around, so there’s no telling what damage they’ve caused. I’ve had my main blog for over 3 years now, and the thought of losing all the hard work I’ve put into it is just devastating, not to mention costly! I have a shared hosting plan, so of course once they can get into one site, they can also access the others. Luckily, I now have the procedures detailed within Blog Defender in place so that I can prevent the majority of this ever happening again. Once you’ve secured one site it gets a lot quicker to secure all subsequent sites. With Blog Defender, you get easy-to-follow videos, along with a detailed checklist that you can downloadf. You are literally walked through the process of securing your blog against hackers, which has given me real peace of mind. This is a growing issue that all website owners are facing; so it isn’t going to go away. Prevention is better than cure, particularly as some of the nastier hacks around can literally ruin your business. So do yourself a favour – get your sites protected now, before it’s too late.” Nikki Stephens, www.nikkistephens.com
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”I sure wish I’d had this before I lost over a dozen blogs just recently. Okay, it was my fault for not securing things more, BUT… I didn’t have a handy, current reference like this to turn to for quick help either.;)” Kathe Lucas – www.wackycentral.com
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012, no Blog Defender-secured sites 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 an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with 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.
Product 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, 30 day, 100% refund guarantee.
Product Cost
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: Pricing for Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current price when this content was published. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Buy This Product
Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot ignore the importance of web security.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, plugins and themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps 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 site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major security risks without investing in expensive solutions.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress
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