The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and the situation is getting worse.
It’s 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 160,000+ WordPress sites 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)
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 cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your site is of little value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites are valuable to a malicious user.
If a malicious user can find a security flaw that allows them to gain remote control of your website or blog, that site can then be used to attack other valued websites.
The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are most likely searching for security weaknesses and trying to hack into your site while you are reading this article at this very moment. Whether they can get into your site successfully depends on how difficult you will make things for hackers to keep persisting until they can work out how to break in, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less secure target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Scan Screenshot: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test will yield a number of results and details about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security scan results. Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this scanning tool that if you can see all of this information about your website, then so can hackers.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
The ability 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 potentially useful information to hackers, as this informs them about any exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package 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 looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This site had literally no value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred within the server, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience should be enough to illustrate the fact that all websites have value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security holes in your web site are …
And let’s you quickly fix these …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
Blog Defender includes three plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
The plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and popular cloud storage solutions using different backup methods (including FTP and email backups), perform complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do mass text replacements in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides your website or blog with security …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
This plugin provides a range of site and file security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
The third plugin scans your WordPress plugins, themes and core files to see whether anything in your files has been altered, and repair any problems it uncovers …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Video Tutorials
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes training in video format and training documentation that will show you exactly how to protect your site from hackers …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Quick And Easy To Install And Configure
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite install like every WordPress plugin. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WordPress administrator area and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that will walk 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 use to get things done without paying additional expenses.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Secure Your Info Products – If you sell an info product (e.g. downloadable e-books, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Search Engines – When a website has been hacked, expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, web presence could get closed by your host, or even deindexed by search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender offers many features to site owners.
The product addresses the following security areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- File Monitoring
- Track Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate Core WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process to help secure your site, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Testimonials From Plugin Customers
Here are a couple of the testimonials and comments that users have written about the Blog Defender solution:
”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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”I sure wish I’d had this before I lost over a dozen blogs just recently. Okay, it was my fault for not securing things more, BUT… I didn’t have a handy, current reference like this to turn to for quick help either.;)” Kathe Lucas – www.wackycentral.com
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, no Blog Defender-secured sites have been hacked since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012.
Matt Garrett, the product developer 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.”
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 currently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need 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.
Blog Defender 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 no-risk, thirty day, 100% refund guarantee.
Product 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.
Note: The cost of purchasing Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use This Product
No matter what kind 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 essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, WordPress plugins and themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies like the one 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 to help prevent your sites being compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress site easier.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Solution
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