The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and this is getting worse.
It’s safe to 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 160,000+ WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Could yours be next?
(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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a security vulnerability presents an opportunity to hackers. A compromised website or blog not only offers wannabe hackers opportunities to improve their hacking skills and win “respect” among their peers, but it can also serve as a valuable resource for distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, distributing malware and defrauding online users through information theft.
If a malicious user can find a way to break in and gain control of your website or blog, that website can then be used to attack larger and more highly-valued web sites.
The reality is that software-driven bots are very likely looking for security weaknesses and trying to hack into your site as you are reading this article. Whether they can achieve this or not, depends on how difficult or easy you will make things for hackers and botnets to continue trying until they either find a way to break in, or are forced to decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Check Product image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan returns a number of results and details about your website …
(WP security scan results. Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you are able to access all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
The ability to see which 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 potential security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended by the hosting company. This particular site was fairly new and so had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of this after being contacted by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within his site, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
This simple example demonstrates that every website has some value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security weaknesses in your website are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 plugins:
Plugin #1 in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
This plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods, schedule full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text string replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 provides your website or blog with security …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
The plugin performs a range of file and site security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan your content and files to detect whether anything has been altered, and fix any problems detected …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content 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 reciprocating the favor).
Step-By-Step Training Videos
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes several videos plus written documentation that will show you exactly how to protect your website from hackers …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
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:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite are quite easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow step-by-step training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free plugins you should install to get things done without incurring extra costs.
Additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products From Being Freely Distributed – If you are an information product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a site is hacked, you should expect to go through a serious amount of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. Your, site could be closed by your host, or even blocked by search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business or financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides many features to web site owners.
Blog Defender covers the following security areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress 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 Blocking
- Monitoring Files
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process to help secure your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials From Plugin Users
Below are just some testimonials and comments that plugin users have submitted for Blog Defender:
”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 Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender’s first release, no Blog Defender-secured sites were hacked.
Matt Garrett 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 technologies that developers currently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’t cost a fortune 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 risk-free, thirty day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product 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.
Note: Price details for the Blog Defender product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the pricing when this review was published. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing:
Additional Plugin Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use These Plugins
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot ignore the importance of web security.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, WordPress plugins and themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you understand what your security 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 how to avoid all the major WordPress security holes without paying for costly solutions.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender
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