The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and things are getting 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 began reporting that 162,000 WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Screenshot: 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 reported 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.
Every website or blog with a vulnerability can be seen as a potential opportunity to hackers. A compromised blog presents malicious users with a resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and use your website to steal information from online users.
If a malicious user can hack and control your blog, your website can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyberattack against more valuable sites.
The harsh reality is that hackers are very likely searching for security weaknesses and trying to break into your website as you are reading this page. Whether they can break into your site or not, will depend on how challenging you can make it for hackers to keep persisting until they work out a way to get access, or decide to look for a less protected 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 check …
(WordPress Security Scan Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan will yield a number of results and details about your website …
(WP security scan results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you can access all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Image source: Blog Defender)
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 all be potentially 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 can stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and help to protect it against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress Blogs
Product Description
The product 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 blog he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This particular blog had literally nothing to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within the site, as well as the addition of several phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
This simple example provides the valuable lesson that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security holes in your website are …
And then shows you how to quickly and easily fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite of products includes 3 plugins:
The first plugin in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. Email), perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to different domains or server locations), do bulk text replacements in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
The second plugin provides your website or blog with security …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” performs a range of vital file and site protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 scans your content and files to see if any code in your files has been tampered with, and repair any problems detected …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious URLs 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 reciprocating the favor).
Video Tutorials
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes a number of training in video format and downloadable guides that teach you exactly how to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some 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 included with Blog Defender install like any other WordPress plugin. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that guides you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which plugins you can use for free to get the job done inexpensively.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Your Info Products From Being Stolen – If your site sells a digital product (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Your Host – When a site has been hacked, you can expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. Your, websites could get closed by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. In addition, your personal contacts could end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details can be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender was designed to lock down your site and keep your business safe and secure 24/7.
The product helps you fix all of the following issues:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- Monitor Files
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process to help protect your site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky WP themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Source: Blog Defender)
Testimonials
Here are just a few of the testimonials that users have provided for the Blog Defender solution:
”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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”A top level force against hacker attacks!” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, no websites or blogs using Blog Defender were hacked since Blog Defender’s release.
The product developer 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 perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers currently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with 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.
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, 30 day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software 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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: Price details for the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the plugin sells for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product developer when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Install The Plugins
No matter what 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 website security.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, plugins and themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security procedures such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand 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 hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your installation easier.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender
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