The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and things are getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if you haven’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 over 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Source: 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 flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website with a security vulnerability can be an opportunity to hackers. All websites are valuable to hackers. Corporate sites, personal blogs, government websites … even web sites owned by online security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If a hacker can exploit a way to take over your website or blog, your website can then be used as a “bot” to attack other valuable sites.
The harsh reality is that brute-force software bots are most likely scouring for exploits and trying to break into your site as you are reading this article right now. Whether they will hack into your site successfully depends on how challenging you will make it for them to keep trying until they work out how to get access, or decide to look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Website Security Check Product image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check returns various results and details about your website …
(website security check results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can freely access all of this information, hackers can too.
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Being able 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 can be useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about any potential vulnerabilities, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender Security Suite
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 creator of the BlogDefender security suit began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother got hacked into. This site was devoid of content and so had practically nothing to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed by his host and observing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside his server, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files designed to lure visitors to the site and hijack Paypal account details.
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience demonstrates that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your website are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite of products comes with 3 plugins:
Plugin #1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud solutions using different backup methods, schedule complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to new domains or server locations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
This plugin provides a range of vital website protection functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Plugin #3 lets you scan WordPress sites to see whether any of your files have been changed, 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 hard work without offering any benefit in return).
Training Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes several video guides and downloadable documentation that teach you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
More info:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Ready To Use In Minutes
The Blog Defender plugins are really easy to install. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow DIY step-by-step training product that will guide 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 incurring unnecessary costs.
Some additional benefits include the following:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you’re an information product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blacklisted By Your Host – When a website gets hacked, you can expect to go through a serious amount of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. Your, website could be suspended by your webhost, or even blocked by search engines. And if this is not painful enough, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender provides many features to web site owners.
Blog Defender addresses the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- File Monitoring
- Tracking Links
- Block Known Offenders
- Automate Core WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process for securing your site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image source: Blog Defender)
Testimonials From Customers
Here are some of the testimonials and comments that customers have published about the Blog Defender solution:
”Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re too small or not important enough to be hacked! I’ve found out that I’ve had bots in the backend of my sites, making alterations and changing things around, so there’s no telling what damage they’ve caused. I’ve had my main blog for over 3 years now, and the thought of losing all the hard work I’ve put into it is just devastating, not to mention costly! I have a shared hosting plan, so of course once they can get into one site, they can also access the others. Luckily, I now have the procedures detailed within Blog Defender in place so that I can prevent the majority of this ever happening again. Once you’ve secured one site it gets a lot quicker to secure all subsequent sites. With Blog Defender, you get easy-to-follow videos, along with a detailed checklist that you can downloadf. You are literally walked through the process of securing your blog against hackers, which has given me real peace of mind. This is a growing issue that all website owners are facing; so it isn’t going to go away. Prevention is better than cure, particularly as some of the nastier hacks around can literally ruin your business. So do yourself a favour – get your sites protected now, before it’s too late.” Nikki Stephens, www.nikkistephens.com
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”A top level force against hacker attacks!” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, since Blog Defender’s first release, no Blog Defender-secured websites were hacked.
Matt Garrett 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.”
Cybersecurity is an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers can currently get their hands on. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t need 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 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, thirty day, full money-back guarantee.
Product Price
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 price of the Blog Defender plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price shown above was current at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin author when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Download This Product
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, WP plugins and themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress website easier.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress
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