The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and it’s only going to get worse.
It’s safe to assume that if you haven’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 sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Screenshot image: 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)
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 or blog with a security vulnerability has some degree of value to hackers. An unsecured website provides malicious users with a resource to launch DDoS attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft.
If a malicious user can exploit a vulnerability in the web software that allows them to compromise the control of your website or blog, the website can then be used to attack larger and more highly-valued sites.
The truth is that brute-force software bots are probably trying to break into your web site as you are reading this page right now. Whether they will do this successfully or not, will depend on how challenging you have made it for hackers to keep persisting until they discover how to get in, or decide to look for a less secure target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan returns various results and information about your website setup …
(WP security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can see all of this information about your site, then hackers can too.
(Product image 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 in your site can be potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about potential holes or weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress Websites & Blogs
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended by the webhost. This blog had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place inside the site, as well as the addition of several phishing files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
This example provides the valuable lesson that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security weaknesses in your web site are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite comes with 3 plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do automated backups to your server, external servers and popular cloud-based solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), schedule complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites 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 “WP Security” provides WordPress security …
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides a range of file and site security functions (see “Features” section below).
Plugin #3 allows you to scan your content and files to detect if anything unusual in your files has been found, and fix the problem …
(Source: BlogDefender website)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your hard work without offering anything in return).
Video Tutorials
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes step-by-step tutorial videos and downloadable guides that will teach you exactly how to protect your site from malicious users …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here we have listed 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:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product install just like every other plugin. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your admin user account and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which WordPress plugins you can install for free to get the job done.
Some additional benefits of the plugin include:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you’re an information product author (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a site gets hacked, you can expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, website could get closed by your host, or even deindexed in search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Features
Blog Defender was created to locks down your site and keeps your business safe and secure 24/7.
Blog Defender covers the following areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- WordPress 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 Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Monitoring Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process to help secure your site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image: BlogDefender.com)
User Feedback
Below are a couple of the testimonials that plugin users have published about Blog Defender:
”This is probably one of those times you ask yourself ‘do I really need this product?’ Let’s face it, on the surface it’s not going to immediately put more money in your pocket or even add some cool new gizmo to your site… The truth is yes you do and you need it now. I’ve been in the online business for 10+ years and had my fair share of hacked sites which have cost me time and money (lots of it)…I’ve also seen a good number of people have their reputations and entire businesses left in tatters when their sites have been hacked. Right now is the time to act, because when it’s too late, well basically you’ll be screwed (and you’ll regret the day you passed over such a great opportunity to protect yourself for so little). And by the way, if you think your web host will come to your rescue think again, you’ll be on your own, paying to put things right and suffering the cost of lost sales and business. This is a seriously good product and if you rely on WordPress to make you money online then it’s nothing less than essential. Buy it, follow Matt’s expert advice and don’t end up another victim!” Simon Hodgkinson, www.hodgkinsonpublishing.com
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”Just one tip could have prevented my blogs getting hacked!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, since Blog Defender was first released in 2012, no sites protected by the solution have been 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.”
Cybersecurity is an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers presently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’t cost a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most web 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 risk-free, thirty day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin 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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: The cost of purchasing Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the price at the time this article was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the software author when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use These Plugins
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like making sure that your WordPress core files, WordPress plugins and WP themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security policies like the one Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, 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 site easier.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Solution
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