The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation 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 only a matter of time before someone attempts to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs 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 described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your site offers no value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites are valuable to a malicious user.
If hackers can find a way to remotely control your web site, that web site can then be used to target other valued websites.
The reality is that hackers are probably trying to break into your blog as you are reading this article right now. Whether they can achieve this depends on how difficult or easy you have made things for them to continue persisting until they can discover how to get access, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Check Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test returns various results and information about your site setup …
(WordPress security check results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to see all of this information, hackers can too.
(Product image: Blog Defender)
The ability to see which 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 in your site can be useful information to hackers, as this informs them about any vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and help to protect it against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This particular blog was quite new and had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place inside his site, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience shows that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for potential security weaknesses …
And then shows you how to quickly and easily fix these …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security product suite includes three WordPress plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and cloud-based storage solutions using different backup methods (e.g. Email), schedule full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides your website with security …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #2 “WP Security” performs a range of vital file and site protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” lets you scan your plugins, WordPress themes and core files to see if anything has been modified, and repair any problems detected …
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your work without providing you anything of value in return).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes a number of video training guides and printable documentation that will teach you exactly what to do to protect your website from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
More info:
Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Ready To Start Using In Very Little Time
The plugins are quite easy to install. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow 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 plugins you can install for free to get the job done without paying for additional or unnecessary expenses.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Secure 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.
- Helps Avoid Intellectual Property Theft – If your site sells an info product (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Search Engines – When a site has been hacked, you should expect to go through a serious amount of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, site could be suspended by your host, or even deindexed in search engines. In addition, your contacts can be spammed, your subscriber list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender offers many great features to site owners.
Blog Defender helps you fix all of the following security areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- WordPress 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
- Monitoring Files
- Monitoring Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps to help secure your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Feedback From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials plugin customers have submitted regarding the Blog Defender security 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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”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
Useful Tips
According to the plugin’s website, no websites or blogs using Blog Defender have been hacked since Blog Defender was originally released.
Matt Garrett 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 never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers presently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, doesn’t cost a fortune 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, 30 day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin 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 this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the plugin is selling for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin author 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 current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Install These Plugins
Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your sites is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, plugins and WordPress themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your security responsibilities are as a site owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your sites are hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress website easier.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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