The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and the situation is getting 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 reported that over 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot 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 described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website or blog with a security vulnerability offers some value to hackers. A vulnerable site not only presents hackers opportunities to improve their hacking skills and win “respect” amongst their peers, but it can also serve as a valuable resource for stealth attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft.
If hackers can exploit a flaw in the security setup and gain stealth control of your website or blog, your web site can then be used as a “bot” to attack more highly-valued web sites.
The truth is that brute-force software bots are most likely trying to break into your blog at this very moment. Whether they can break in successfully depends on how hard you will make things for hackers and botnets to continue trying until they discover how to break in, or decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the scan returns various results and details about your site …
(WP security scan results. 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 about your website, hackers can too.
(Source: Blog Defender)
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 on your server can be useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially where site owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and make your site invisible to malicious attackers and bots.
Blog Defender Security Solution
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 site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended by the hosting company. This blog had literally no value to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within his site, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting visitors to the site and steal their financial information.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
This example shows that all websites have value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your website are …
And let’s you fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite includes three plugins for WordPress:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #1 lets you do automated backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud solutions using different backup methods (e.g. Email), perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides WordPress security …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
This plugin provides a range of website protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan your WordPress plugins, themes, WP core files and content to detect whether any of your files have been tampered with, and repair any problems found …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your work without providing you anything of value in return).
Blog Defender – Training Videos
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes step-by-step tutorial videos and training documentation that teach you exactly how to protect your website from malicious users …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Go here to learn more:
Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Ready To Start Using In No Time
The Blog Defender plugins install like any WP plugin. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your administrator area and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a DIY step-by-step training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which WordPress plugins you can use for free to get the job done.
Additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If you are a digital product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Search Engines – When a site has been hacked, you should expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, blog could get closed by your webhost, or even deindexed in search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal details or financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides a number of great features to WordPress users.
The product helps you fix the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Host Security Advisory
- WP 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 Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Link Monitoring
- Block Known Offenders
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help protect your web site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky WP themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Feedback From Users
Below are just a few of the testimonials customers have written about 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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”In the past month alone, I’ve had 3 niche blogs hacked, costing me hundreds of dollars in lost sales – all of which could have been avoided if I followed the steps in this training. I can tell you, there’s nothing worse than spending months building up a blog, adding posts every few days, and then finding it all gone in an instant. The great thing about these ‘over the shoulder’ videos is that you get to see exactly how to do everything, so it doesn’t matter if you’re technically challenged. Just copy what you see on the screen, and then relax knowing your blogs are safe. (Just one of the tips in the first video alone could probably have prevented my blogs getting hacked) I even noticed one or two tips in there that help with SEO too … so following these videos could even bring your blogs more traffic!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender was released back in 2012, no Blog Defender-protected websites or blogs were hacked.
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.”
Cybersecurity is is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers can currently 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 premium security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
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.
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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: Pricing for the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the plugin retails for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer 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 current pricing details:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
We Recommend
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your web sites is something you simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WordPress installation, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting a security policy like 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 if your sites are attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major security risks without costly solutions.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender
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