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 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 over 160,000+ WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Could yours be next?
(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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every site with a vulnerability offers some value to hackers. A compromised site not only presents new hackers opportunities to improve their skills and win “respect” amongst their peers, but it can also serve as a resource for DDoS attacks, spreading malware and participating in information theft.
If a malicious user can exploit a web software flaw, your website or blog can then be used to target larger and more valued web sites.
The harsh reality is that malicious bots are most likely trying to hack into your web site at this very moment. Whether they can hack in successfully or not, will depend on how hard or easy you can make things for hackers to continue persisting until they work out how to break in, or give up and decide to look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Check Source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will display various results and information about your website setup …
(Hackertarget – website security check results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can freely access all of this information about your WordPress site, hackers can too.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
The ability 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 on your server can all be useful information to hackers, as this informs them about any exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive 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 package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator 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. This site was fairly new and so had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred within his site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to drive unsuspecting visitors to the site and hijack Paypal account details.
(Product image source: BlogDefender website)
Matt’s experience should be enough to convince you that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for potential security holes …
And let’s you quickly fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The Blog Defender security product comes with three plugins:
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and leading cloud storage solutions using different backup methods (e.g. Email), perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text strings in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides WordPress security …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
The “WP Security” plugin performs a range of essential file and site security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” allows you to scan your plugins, WP themes, WP core files and content to see if any of your files have been modified, and fix any problems detected …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
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 others benefit from your content without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Video Tutorials
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes seven videos plus printable guides that teach you exactly how to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Ready To Use In No Time
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite are quite easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin user area and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which plugins you can install for free to get the job done.
Some additional benefits of using the plugin include the following:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Helps Avoid Intellectual Property Theft – If your site sells info products (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a website is hacked, you should expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, website or blog could get closed by your host, 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 a whole lot more.
Features
Blog Defender provides a number of features to WordPress users.
Blog Defender addresses the following issues:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- 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
- Monitor Files
- Tracking Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps for securing your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and WP plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Image source: BlogDefender website)
Feedback From Users
Here are some of the testimonials that users have provided 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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”My business is built around the WordPress platform and I’m embarrassed to admin I’ve been slack in the security department. However, Matt’s training soon put that right! I followed each detailed video to the letter and discovered some incredible security tricks and plugins I’d never heard of before. Better still, all the plugins were free to download too! The end result? My WordPress membership site is now locked down tighter than Parkhurst at midnight and if anybody tries hacking it, I’ll be the first to know! thanks again Matt, I’m off to secure the rest of the blogs in my portfolio!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, no sites secured by the product have been hacked since Blog Defender’s original 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.”
Cybersecurity is an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers can currently access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, won’t cost you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most premium 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 refund guarantee.
Plugin 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: Current pricing for Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the product retails for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software developer when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Get This Product
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 securing your website.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress software, WordPress plugins and WP themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you learn what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your websites are compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your installation easier.
For more details, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress Blogs
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