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 began reporting that 162,000 legitimate WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
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 web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website or blog has no significant value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites are an opportunity to benefit or profit at your expense.
If hackers can find a way to compromise the control of your website, that web site can then be employed as a “bot” to attack larger and more valuable websites.
The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are scouring for exploits and trying to break into your site right now. Whether they will be successful will depend on how challenging you have made things for them to continue persisting until they discover how to get access, or are forced to decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Check Product image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test returns a number of results and information about your site …
(website security scan results. Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can see all of this information, then so can hackers.
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
The ability to see what version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories are all potentially useful information to hackers, as this informs them about potentially exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially in older 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 Plugin For WordPress
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by its hosting company. This particular blog had literally nothing to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside his server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to drive unsuspecting visitors to the site and steal financial details.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
This simple example demonstrates that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security weaknesses in your website are …
And then shows you how to easily fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #1 lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, external servers and cloud-based solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), schedule complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your website with security …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” performs a range of vital site and file security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” lets you scan your WordPress plugins, themes, WP core files and content to detect whether any code in your files has been modified, and repair any problems found …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
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 content without reciprocating the favor).
Step-By-Step Training Videos
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes seven step-by-step video training modules plus printable guides that teach you exactly how to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
Go here to learn more:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
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:
Quick And Simple To Install And Configure
The Blog Defender plugins install just like any regular plugin. Just upload a zip file containing the plugins to your Plugin folder via your admin user account and activate.
Very 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 what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free WordPress plugins to use to get things done without paying for extra costs.
Additional benefits of using the plugin include:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If your site sells a digital product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Suspended By Your Web Host And Banned By Search Engines – When a website has been hacked, you can expect to go through a serious amount of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. During this time, your, websites could be suspended by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender provides a number of great features to WP users.
Blog Defender addresses the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- File Monitoring
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help secure your web site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Source: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials that customers have submitted regarding the Blog Defender plugin:
”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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”I discovered some incredible security tricks!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Useful Tips
According to the plugin’s site, since Blog Defender was first released, no Blog Defender-protected sites were hacked.
Matt Garrett 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 information and tools developers can get their hands on. 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 most premium security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Product 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, full money-back guarantee.
Software Price
Blog Defender is normally available with a personal license only for use 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.
Please Note: Pricing details of the Blog Defender product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the pricing at the time this review was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin seller when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use This Product
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you cannot ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WP core files, plugins and 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 like the one Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your websites are hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your website easier.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress Websites
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