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 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 began reporting that over 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(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)
According to leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website or blog has nothing to offer to hackers, but the reality is that all websites are valuable to a malicious user.
If a malicious user can find a way to break in and gain remote control of your blog, the website can then be employed to target other valuable sites.
The truth is that hackers are most likely looking for security exploits and trying to hack into your blog right now. Whether they will be successful or not, will depend on how challenging you will make it for them to continue persisting until they can either work out a way to get access, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(WP Security Scan Source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test returns various results and information about your website …
(Hackertarget – WP security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to freely access all of this information about your website, then so can hackers.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Being able 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 can all be valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about any potential holes or weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender WordPress Security Product Suite
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 developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended. This site was fairly new and so had literally nothing to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within the site, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files designed to drive visitors to the site and steal financial details.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
This simple example shows that all websites have value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for potential security weaknesses …
And let’s you fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
The plugin lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, external servers and leading cloud backup solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. FTP), schedule complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides your site with security …
(Source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #2 provides a range of file and site protection functions (see “Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” lets you scan your website to detect whether anything has been tampered with, and repair problems …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
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 hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Video Training
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes several video guides plus printable guides that will teach you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from malicious users …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Use
The plugins are quite easy to install. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a step-by-step training product that will take you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free WordPress plugins you should install to get the job done without paying for extra costs.
Some additional benefits of using this plugin include:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protect Your Info Products – If you sell an info product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blacklisted By Search Engines – When a website gets hacked, you can expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. Your, blog could get closed by your webhost, or even blocked in search engines. Additionally, your contacts could be spammed, your customer list and financial details can be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender provides many unique features to site owners.
Blog Defender covers the following areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP 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
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps for securing your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and WordPress plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
User Feedback
Here are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that customers have submitted for Blog Defender:
”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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”My business is built around the WordPress platform and I’m embarrassed to admin I’ve been slack in the security department. However, Matt’s training soon put that right! I followed each detailed video to the letter and discovered some incredible security tricks and plugins I’d never heard of before. Better still, all the plugins were free to download too! The end result? My WordPress membership site is now locked down tighter than Parkhurst at midnight and if anybody tries hacking it, I’ll be the first to know! thanks again Matt, I’m off to secure the rest of the blogs in my portfolio!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender was first released, no websites or blogs secured by the solution have been hacked.
Matt Garrett, the product developer also states on his site, however …
“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 presently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, won’t cost you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than many web 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, 30 day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin 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: The cost of purchasing the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this content was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin seller when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price here:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
The Bottom Line
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 very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, WP plugins and WordPress themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting a security policy such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities 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 details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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