The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and this is only going to get worse.
It’s 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 began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(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)
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.
You may think that your website or blog has no value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, every website provides an opportunity to benefit or profit at your expense.
If someone can find a software vulnerability in your security, that web site can then be used to target larger and more valued websites.
The harsh reality is that hackers are most likely scouring for security exploits and trying to break into your site while you are reading this at this very moment. Whether they can get into your site successfully or not, depends on how challenging you can make things for hackers to keep trying until they can work out how to get access, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Scan Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan returns various results and information about your website …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security check results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can freely access all of this information, hackers can too.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Being able 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 in your site can all be useful information to hackers, as this informs them about exploitable security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and protect against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product 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 began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended. This site was almost brand new and had literally no value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside the site, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to drive visitors to the site and steal Paypal account details.
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security weaknesses in your web site are …
And let’s you fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite includes three plugins:
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do secure backups to your server, external servers and cloud-based solutions using different backup methods (e.g. FTP), perform complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text strings in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
The second plugin provides WordPress security …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” provides a range of site security functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 scans WordPress sites to detect whether anything in your files has been found, and fix any problems it detects …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 people benefit from your work without reciprocating the favor).
Video Training
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes a number of step-by-step training videos plus written guides that teach you exactly what to do to protect your site from malicious users …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
Learn more here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Configure
The plugins included with Blog Defender install like every plugin. Simply upload them to your Plugins folder via your WP admin user area and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a step-by-step training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free plugins you should use to get things done without paying additional costs.
Some additional plugin benefits include:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Theft – If you sell a digital product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a site gets hacked, you can expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, blog can be closed by your webhost, or even blacklisted in search engines. And if that is not painful enough, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details or financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender hide your web site from hackers and malicious botnets.
Blog Defender addresses the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress 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
- Monitoring Files
- Monitor Links
- 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 process to help protect your site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Image source: Blog Defender)
Feedback From Users
Below are a couple of the testimonials customers have submitted for the Blog Defender security suite:
”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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”I discovered some incredible security tricks!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, no Blog Defender-protected websites or blogs were hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
Matt Garrett, 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.”
The war on hackers is an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t require 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 no-risk, thirty day, 100% 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Please Note: Current pricing for Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin author 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 the current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
The Bottom Line
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of website security.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like making sure that your WP installation, plugins and WP themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps 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 how to avoid major security risks without costly solutions.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Product Suite
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