The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and the situation is only going to get worse.
It’s probably safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 160,000+ legitimate WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Image: 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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every site with a vulnerability has some potential value to hackers. All websites have value to hackers. Large, medium and small websites, personal blogs, government websites … even sites owned by online security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If a malicious user can exploit a way to take over your website, the web site can then be used to attack other valuable sites.
The truth is that software-driven bots are most likely trying to hack into your blog while you are reading this page. Whether they will break into your site or not, will depend on how difficult you will make things for them to keep trying until they can discover a way to get access, or are forced to decide to look for a less protected 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 check …
(WP Security Check Source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns various results and details about your website …
(Hackertarget – website security scan results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you are able to freely access all of this information, so can hackers.
(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 can be potentially valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about potentially exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by the webhost. This particular site had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside the server, as well as the addition of several phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience illustrates the fact that all websites have value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security weaknesses in your WordPress installation are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
The product suite includes 3 plugins:
The first plugin in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Source: BlogDefender website)
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do automated backups to your server, external servers and popular cloud-based backup solutions using different backup methods (including FTP and email backups), perform full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to new domains or server locations), search and replace text strings in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 provides WordPress security …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
This plugin provides a range of site security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Plugin #3 scans your WP plugins, WP themes, core files and content to see if any of your files have been altered, and fix any problems detected …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender product suite also includes several video guides and PDF/DOC guides that show you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from malicious users …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Be Up And Running In Very Little Time
The plugins are really easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a do-it-yourself 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 the job done.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protect Your Info Products From Being Shared Around The Net – 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 download sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a website is 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. During this time, your, web presence can be suspended by your host, or even blocked by search engines. Additionally, your contacts could end up being spammed, your customer list and financial details can be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender offers many features to site owners.
The product covers the following areas:
- Host 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 WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process to help protect your site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Feedback From Users
Below are just some testimonials and comments that plugin customers 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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”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 the product’s website, since Blog Defender was released back in 2012, no Blog Defender-secured websites were hacked.
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 an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers currently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t need 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.
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, 30 day, complete refund guarantee.
Software Cost
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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: Pricing for the Blog Defender software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the software retails for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin seller when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here:
Additional Plugin Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
What We Recommend
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 afford to ignore the importance of website security.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WP core files, plugins and themes up-to-date, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting a security policy such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what your security responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your site is hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major security risks without investing in expensive solutions.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress Web Sites
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