The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and things are getting worse.
You can safely 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 160,000+ legitimate WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Screenshot source: 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)
According to security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every site with a vulnerability offers some value to hackers. No website or blog is guaranteed immunity from being attacked by hackers. Business web sites, personal blogs, government websites … even sites owned by online security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If someone can break in and remotely take control of your site, that blog can then be used as a “bot” to attack larger and more highly-valued sites.
The reality is that hackers are very likely trying to break into your website or blog right now. Whether they can hack into your site will depend on how difficult or easy you will make things for hackers to keep trying until they can work out how to get in, or give up and decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Check Product image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan will yield a number of results and information about your site setup …
(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 see all of this information, hackers can too.
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
The ability to see which version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories can be potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about any exploitable vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress
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 creator of the BlogDefender security suit began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This particular blog was almost brand new and had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being contacted by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within his server, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to lure visitors to the site and steal their Paypal account details.
(Product image source: BlogDefender website)
This example shows that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security holes in your WordPress site are …
And let’s you quickly and easily fix these …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite comes with three plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Source: Blog Defender)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, external servers and well-known cloud-based solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. Email), perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to different domains or server locations), do bulk text replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 provides WordPress security …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
The “WordPress Security” plugin performs a range of essential file and site protection functions (see “Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” allows you to scan your files and content to see if any code in your files has been tampered with, and fix any problems detected …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious scripts 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 you any benefit in return).
Blog Defender – Tutorials Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes several video training guides and written documentation that will teach you exactly how to protect your website from hackers and bots …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Be Up And Running In No Time
The Blog Defender plugins install like every other WordPress plugin. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin user login and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free WordPress plugins to install to get things done without incurring unnecessary expenses.
Some additional benefits include:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Theft – If you sell digital products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Search Engines – When a website has been hacked, you should expect to go through a great deal of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, account can get closed by your host, or even blacklisted in search engines. Additionally, your personal contacts could end up being spammed, your customer list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender offers a number of great features to WordPress users.
The product helps you fix the following issues:
- Hosting 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 Tracking
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps for securing your your WordPress installation, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and WordPress plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials that plugin customers have written about Blog Defender:
”This is probably one of those times you ask yourself ‘do I really need this product?’ Let’s face it, on the surface it’s not going to immediately put more money in your pocket or even add some cool new gizmo to your site… The truth is yes you do and you need it now. I’ve been in the online business for 10+ years and had my fair share of hacked sites which have cost me time and money (lots of it)…I’ve also seen a good number of people have their reputations and entire businesses left in tatters when their sites have been hacked. Right now is the time to act, because when it’s too late, well basically you’ll be screwed (and you’ll regret the day you passed over such a great opportunity to protect yourself for so little). And by the way, if you think your web host will come to your rescue think again, you’ll be on your own, paying to put things right and suffering the cost of lost sales and business. This is a seriously good product and if you rely on WordPress to make you money online then it’s nothing less than essential. Buy it, follow Matt’s expert advice and don’t end up another victim!” Simon Hodgkinson, www.hodgkinsonpublishing.com
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”My business is built around the WordPress platform and I’m embarrassed to admin I’ve been slack in the security department. However, Matt’s training soon put that right! I followed each detailed video to the letter and discovered some incredible security tricks and plugins I’d never heard of before. Better still, all the plugins were free to download too! The end result? My WordPress membership site is now locked down tighter than Parkhurst at midnight and if anybody tries hacking it, I’ll be the first to know! thanks again Matt, I’m off to secure the rest of the blogs in my portfolio!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, since Blog Defender’s first release, no Blog Defender-secured 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 knowledge and tools that developers can currently get their hands on. 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.
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, complete refund 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: The cost of purchasing the Blog Defender software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software sells for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Get The Product
Regardless of the type 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 afford to ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WP software, WP plugins and WordPress themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security policies like 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 if the security on your site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major WordPress security holes without paying a lot of money.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Solution
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