The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, 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 began reporting that 160,000+ legitimate WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Screenshot 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 flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website with a security vulnerability can be an opportunity to hackers. An unsecured blog presents malicious users with a platform for DDoS attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft.
If hackers can access and take over your site, that web site can then be employed to attack more valued web sites.
The reality is that malicious bots are probably searching for security exploits and trying to hack into your web site at this very moment. Whether they will get in successfully depends on how challenging you will make it for hackers and bots to continue trying until they either can discover how to get access, or give up and decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Website Security Check Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test will display various results and information about your website setup …
(WordPress security scan results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you can access all of this information, so can hackers.
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
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 are all valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about any exploitable security weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and protect against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender WordPress Security Solution
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother got hacked into. This particular blog had practically no value to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being contacted by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within his server, as well as the addition of several phishing files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for potential security holes …
And let’s you easily fix these …
WP Plugins
The product suite includes three WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
Plugin #1 lets you do secure backups to your server, third-party servers and cloud solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. FTP), perform 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), search and replace text strings in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
The plugin performs a range of essential site and file security functions (see “Features” section below).
The third plugin scans WordPress sites to see whether code in your files has been altered, and repair any problems found …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been inserted into your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your content without providing any reciprocal benefit in return).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes a number of step-by-step training in video format plus training documentation that teach you exactly what to do to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
For more details go here:
Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Very Easy To Install
The plugins install like every WP plugin. Simply upload them to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin area and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a do-it-yourself 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 you should install to get things done without incurring unnecessary costs.
Some additional benefits of using this plugin include the following:
- Secure 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.
- Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you’re an information product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a website has been hacked, expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, site could be closed by your host, or even blocked by search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender make your your site invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender covers the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- 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 Blocking
- Monitoring Files
- Link Monitoring
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process to help protect your site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky WP themes and WP plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
User Feedback
Below are a couple of the testimonials and comments plugin customers have submitted for the Blog Defender plugin:
”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 developer, Matt Garrett, since Blog Defender was first released, no Blog Defender-protected sites were hacked.
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.”
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 access. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than many web security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Plugin 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 Pricing
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.
Please Note: Pricing for the Blog Defender software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin sells for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use These Plugins
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WP core files, WP plugins and themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you learn what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major security risks without costly solutions.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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