The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and it’s getting worse.
It’s 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 162,000 WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(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 described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website or blog with a security vulnerability offers some value to hackers. Regardless of the 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 website. Corporate websites, personal blogs, government sites … even websites owned by web security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If a malicious user can hack into and gain any form of control of your website or blog, your site can then be used as a “bot” in a planned cyberattack against more valuable web sites.
The harsh reality is that malicious bots are scouring for security exploits and trying to break into your website while you are reading this page at this very moment. Whether they will hack in successfully will depend on how hard you can make things for them to continue persisting until they find how to get access, or are forced to give up and go look for an easier 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 Scan Screenshot image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the scan returns various results and information about your website …
(Hackertarget – website security check results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can see all of this information about your blog, then hackers can too.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
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 in your site can be valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about potentially exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress
Product Description
The product is a suite 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 began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This site was quite new and so had literally nothing to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and observing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside the site, as well as the addition of several phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience demonstrates that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your website are …
And let’s you quickly and easily fix these …
WP Plugins
Blog Defender comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud solutions using a number of backup methods, schedule full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text strings in your database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your WordPress web site with security …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
The “WordPress Security” plugin provides a range of essential site security functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 scans your files and content to detect if anything unusual in your source code or files has been altered, and fix problems …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Step-By-Step Tutorial Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes several video training and downloadable guides that teach you exactly what to do to protect your website from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Go here to learn more:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product install like any other plugin. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugins to your Plugins folder via your WP admin user login and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a DIY step-by-step training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which WordPress plugins you can install for free to get the job done inexpensively.
Additional benefits of using this plugin include:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protect Your Info Products From Being Freely Distributed – If you’re a digital product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a website has been hacked, you should expect to go through a serious amount 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 be suspended by your webhost, or even deindexed by search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal details or financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender provides many unique features to WordPress users.
The product helps you fix all of the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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
- Monitor Files
- Monitoring Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process to help secure your website, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Source: BlogDefender site)
Feedback From Users
Below are just some testimonials plugin users have provided for Blog Defender:
”I’ve had to go through the inconvenience of a hacked blog before and let me tell you it’s not nice. With online security becoming an increasing problem, especially with WordPress, this is a great way to secure your blog. I’ll be following Matt’s training and securing all my blogs…Great job.” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.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
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, no Blog Defender-secured websites or blogs were hacked since Blog Defender’s release.
Matt 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 information and tools that developers currently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’t cost you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most premium security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Blog Defender 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, complete money-back 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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: Pricing details of Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing above was correct at the time this article was published. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the product author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Our Recommendation
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your web sites is something you cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WordPress core files, plugins and themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your responsibilities are as the website owner, 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 WordPress security holes without paying for costly solutions.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Product Suite
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