The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and it’s only going to get worse.
You can safely 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+ legitimate WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Source: BlogDefender website)
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 security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a vulnerability can present an opportunity to hackers. All websites are valuable to hackers. Large, medium and small sites, personal blogs, government websites … even sites owned by online security experts can and have been targeted.
If someone can break in and gain stealth control of your website, that website or blog can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target other highly-valued web sites.
The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are probably trying to break into your website right now. Whether they will be successful or not, will depend on how challenging you have made it for them to continue persisting until they can work out how to get access, or are forced to give up and decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Check Screenshot image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test returns various results and details about your site …
(Hackertarget – website security check results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can freely access all of this information about your site, hackers can too.
(Source: Blog Defender)
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 on your server can all be potentially valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about exploitable security weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress Sites
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
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 site had literally nothing to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being contacted by his host and observing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside the site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting visitors to the site and hijack financial details.
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience shows that that every website has value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for potential security weaknesses …
And let’s you fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security product suite comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
This plugin lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and leading cloud-based storage solutions using different backup methods (including FTP and email backups), perform complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text string replacements in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” provides your WordPress web site with security …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
The “WP Security” plugin performs a range of file and site security functions (see “Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan your content and files to see if code in your files has been changed, and fix problems …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” 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 others benefit from your hard work without providing any benefit in return).
Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender security product suite also includes 7 training modules in video format plus PDF/DOC documentation that will show you exactly how to protect your site from malicious users …
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here 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 web site:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
The plugins install just like every other WP plugin. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as 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 everything up, and even which free WordPress plugins to use to get the job done.
Some additional benefits of using the plugin include the following:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protect Your Info Products – If your site sells info products (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a website has been hacked, expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. During this time, your, sites could be closed by your webhost, or even deindexed by search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal details and financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender offers a number of great features to WordPress users.
The product provides fixes for the following areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- Monitoring Files
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps for securing your website, addressing hosting security, using tools to identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Image source: Blog Defender)
User Feedback
Below are a couple of the testimonials and comments that plugin customers have submitted regarding the Blog Defender security products:
”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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”In the past month alone, I’ve had 3 niche blogs hacked, costing me hundreds of dollars in lost sales – all of which could have been avoided if I followed the steps in this training. I can tell you, there’s nothing worse than spending months building up a blog, adding posts every few days, and then finding it all gone in an instant. The great thing about these ‘over the shoulder’ videos is that you get to see exactly how to do everything, so it doesn’t matter if you’re technically challenged. Just copy what you see on the screen, and then relax knowing your blogs are safe. (Just one of the tips in the first video alone could probably have prevented my blogs getting hacked) I even noticed one or two tips in there that help with SEO too … so following these videos could even bring your blogs more traffic!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, no sites protected by the product were hacked since Blog Defender’s original release.
Matt 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 an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and technologies that developers can currently get their hands on. 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 most 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 risk-free, 30 day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
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 plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the plugin is selling for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin seller when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of securing your websites.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, plugins and themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting security procedures like 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 how to avoid all the major security risks without investing in expensive solutions.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress
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