The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and this is getting worse.
You can safely 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 162,000 WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Screenshot source: 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 described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website or blog with a vulnerability can can provide an opportunity to hackers. A compromised website not only provides new hackers opportunities to improve their skills and win “respect” from their peers, but it can also acts as a platform for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and defrauding users through information theft.
If a malicious user can find a way to break in and gain remote access and control of your website, that web site can then be used as a “bot” to attack more valued web sites.
The harsh reality is that hackers are very likely looking for security weaknesses and trying to hack into your site right now. Whether they can get in depends on how difficult or easy you can make it for them to keep trying until they can discover a way to get access, or decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(WP Security Check Source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan returns a number of results and information about your website setup …
(Hackertarget – website security check results. Product image: 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 WordPress website, hackers can too.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender website)
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 on your server are all useful information to hackers, as this informs them about exploitable security weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress Websites
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother got hacked into. This blog was not being used and had practically nothing to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred inside the server, as well as the addition of several malicious files designed to drive unsuspecting visitors to the site and steal Paypal account information.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
This example illustrates the fact that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – Plugins
Blog Defender comes with three WordPress plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #1 lets you do secure backups to your server, external servers and popular cloud-based solutions using different backup methods (including FTP and email backups), perform complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text strings in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender website)
The “WordPress Security” plugin performs a range of essential site and file protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan your files and content to detect if code in your files has been found, and repair any problems detected …
(Source: BlogDefender website)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your content without providing any reciprocal value in return).
Video Training
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes seven step-by-step training modules (video) plus training documentation that will teach you exactly how to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
More info:
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 website:
Ready To Go To Work In Minutes
The plugins included with Blog Defender are quite easy to install. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself 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 WordPress plugins to install to get things done.
Some additional plugin benefits include:
- Secure your website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If your site sells digital products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Search Engines – When a website is hacked, you can expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, website could be closed by your webhost, or even deindexed by search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal details and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Features
Blog Defender offers many great features to site owners.
Blog Defender addresses the following security areas:
- Hosting 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
- File Monitoring
- Link Monitoring
- 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 secure your web site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback that users have submitted regarding the Blog Defender security products:
”This is a seriously good product!” Simon Hodgkinson, www.hodgkinsonpublishing.com
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”I discovered some incredible security tricks!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, no Blog Defender-protected websites were hacked since Blog Defender’s first release.
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 is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers can currently harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress 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.
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, 30 day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product 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.
Please Note: Pricing details of Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price shown above was current at the time this article was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product developer when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Download This Product
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot ignore the importance of website security.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like making sure that your WP software, plugins and themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your security responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress installation easier.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress Web Sites
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