The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and things are only going to get 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 reported that 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Could yours 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)
According to leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every web site with a security vulnerability offers some value to hackers. A compromised web site not only offers hackers opportunities to improve their skills and claim “bragging rights” amongst their peers, but it can also serve as a valuable platform for stealth attacks, distributing malware and engaging in information theft.
If a hacker can access and gain remote access of your blog, that website can then be used to attack larger and more valuable sites.
The reality is that malicious bots are very likely looking for security weaknesses and trying to break into your website or blog right now. Whether they can hack in successfully will depend on how hard you have made it for them to keep persisting until they work out how to break in, or are forced to decide to look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(WP Security Check Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan returns various results and details about your website setup …
(WP security check results. Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you are able to see all of this information, then so can hackers.
(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 are all useful information to hackers, as this informs them about potentially exploitable vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This site was devoid of content and so had practically no value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of this after being contacted by his host and observing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place within the site, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting victims to the site and steal their Paypal account details.
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience should be enough to illustrate the fact that every website has value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your WordPress installation are …
And let’s you fix these quickly …
Plugins
The product suite comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
The first plugin in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and cloud-based backup solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), perform full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do mass text string replacements in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 provides WordPress security …
(Source: Blog Defender)
This plugin performs a range of essential website security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Plugin #3 lets you scan your WordPress site to detect whether your source code has been modified, and repair the problem …
(Source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your work without offering you anything of benefit in return).
Blog Defender – Video Training
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes step-by-step training in video format plus printable guides that will teach you exactly how to protect your website from hackers …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Use
The plugins are really easy to install. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP administrator area and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow DIY 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 plugins you can use for free to get things done.
Additional benefits include the following:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Your Info Products From Theft – If you are a digital product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a website gets hacked, you should expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, blog could be suspended by your host, or even deindexed in search engines. And if this isn’t painful enough, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender hide your WordPress website or blog from hackers and malicious botnets.
Blog Defender provides fixes for the following issues:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- File Monitoring
- Track Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps for securing your web site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Source: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials and comments plugin users have provided for the Blog Defender plugin:
”This is a seriously good product!” Simon Hodgkinson, www.hodgkinsonpublishing.com
***
”Just one tip could have prevented my blogs getting hacked!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012, no sites using Blog Defender were hacked.
Matt Garrett, the product developer 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.”
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 tools developers currently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than many premium 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% refund guarantee.
Product Cost
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 to purchase Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the product sells for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller 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 pricing:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
What We Recommend
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot ignore the importance of web security.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like making sure that your WordPress installation, plugins and WP themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting a security procedure such as the one Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if the security on your site 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 more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress
***
***