The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and things are 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 reported that 160,000+ WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image: BlogDefender.com)
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 WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website with a vulnerability can can provide an opportunity to hackers. An unsecured website presents hackers with a resource for launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft.
If a malicious user can exploit a security weakness in your system and gain remote control of your website or blog, the blog can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against larger and more valued sites.
The reality is that brute-force software bots are most likely trying to break into your blog at this very moment. Whether they can get in successfully will depend on how difficult you can make it for hackers or botnets to continue trying until they find how to get access, or are forced to give up and go look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Check Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check will display a number of results and details about your WordPress site …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security check results. Screenshot image: 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 image: 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 can all be potentially useful information to hackers, as this informs them about any potential security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress
Product Description
The product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended. This blog was fairly new and so had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within the site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
This simple example demonstrates that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for potential security holes …
And then shows you how to quickly fix these …
WP Plugins
Blog Defender includes three WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
The plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud backup solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. Email), automate full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your website or blog with security …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
The plugin provides a range of essential file and site security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 lets you scan your plugins, WordPress themes, WordPress core files and content to detect whether anything in your files has been modified, and fix problems …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender website)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious content have been inserted into your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes seven step-by-step training modules (video) and printable guides that will show you exactly what to do to protect your site from hackers …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
For more details go here:
Benefits
Here 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:
Fast And Easy To Install And Use
The plugins included with Blog Defender install like any regular WP plugin. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugins to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin user login and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a step-by-step training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free plugins you should install to get the job done inexpensively.
Additional benefits and advantages include:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protect Your Info Products – If you sell a digital product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Blacklisted By Search Engines – When a site gets hacked, you should expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, web presence could be suspended by your host, or even deindexed by search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender offers many features to WP users.
Blog Defender helps you fix all of the following areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- Monitor Files
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps to help protect your your WordPress installation, addressing hosting security, using tools to identify risky WordPress themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Image source: Blog Defender)
Testimonials
Below are just some testimonials and comments that users have written about the Blog Defender security suite:
“You are literally walked through the process!” Nikki Stephens, www.nikkistephens.com
***
”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
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, no websites using Blog Defender were hacked since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012.
The product developer 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.”
Cybersecurity is is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools that developers presently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than many 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, full refund 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.
Please Note: Price details for the Blog Defender plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was correct when this review was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product 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 the latest pricing here:
Additional Plugin Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
The Bottom Line
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot afford to ignore the importance of securing your web sites.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, WordPress plugins and WP themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to attacks by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your security responsibilities are as the website owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your sites are hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your website easier.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Product Suite
***
***