The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and the situation is 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-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
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 leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a security vulnerability offers some value to hackers. A compromised site offers hackers with a valuable resource for launching DDoS attacks, spreading malware and to engage in information theft.
If a hacker can discover a software vulnerability in your security and control your website or blog, your web site can then be used as a “bot” to attack larger and more highly-valued websites.
The harsh reality is that malicious bots are most likely trying to hack into your blog at this very moment. Whether they will do this successfully will depend on how difficult you have made things for hackers or botnets to continue trying until they discover how to break in, or are forced to decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Check Screenshot image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test will yield various results and details about your site setup …
(WP security check results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you are able to access all of this information about your WordPress website, so can hackers.
(Image source: Blog Defender)
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 in your site can be useful information to hackers, as this informs them about potential vulnerabilities, especially where the owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to malicious users 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 WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by its webhost. This particular blog had practically nothing to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being suspended by his host and noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred inside his server, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting victims to the site and hijack their Paypal account details.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
This example illustrates the fact that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for security holes …
And let’s you quickly fix these …
Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 plugins for WordPress:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud backup solutions using different backup methods (including FTP and email backups), perform complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to new domains or server locations), do mass text replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
The “WP Security” plugin provides a range of file and site protection functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” lets you scan your plugins, themes and WP core files to detect whether any of your files have been modified, and fix the problem …
(Product image source: BlogDefender website)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your work without offering any benefit in return).
Blog Defender – Training Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes 7 step-by-step video training modules plus PDF/DOC guides that will show you exactly how to protect your website from malicious attacks …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here 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:
Be Up And Running In No Time
The plugins install like any other WordPress plugin. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP administrator account and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which plugins you can use for free to get things done inexpensively.
Some additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Theft – If you’re a digital product author (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Host – When a website has been hacked, expect to go through a great deal of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. As a result, your, websites could be suspended by your webhost, or even deindexed by search engines. In addition, your contacts could be spammed, your customer list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender offers a number of great features to web site owners.
Blog Defender helps you fix all of the following security areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Tracking Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process to help protect your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Source: BlogDefender.com)
User Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback that users have published about Blog Defender:
”Great way to secure your blog!” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.com
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”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
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, no websites or blogs using Blog Defender have been hacked since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012.
Matt 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 an 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 creates an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, won’t cost you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than many premium security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Blog Defender 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, 30 day, full refund guarantee.
Software Pricing
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: Price details for Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the product sells for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product developer when you visit the product site 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 help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, 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, securing your websites is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, plugins and themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to attacks by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if the security on your website is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress website easier.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender
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