The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and it’s getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone attempts 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 attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot 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 described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website or blog with a vulnerability can be an opportunity to hackers. No website or blog Business websites, personal blogs, government websites … even sites owned by online security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If someone can find a vulnerability in your security and gain remote access and control of your site, your web site can then be used as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against larger and more valuable web sites.
The truth is that software-driven bots are very likely trying to hack into your website or blog while you are reading this page. Whether they can get into your site successfully will depend on how difficult you have made it for hackers and botnets to keep persisting until they can find how to get access, or are forced to give up and decide to 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 a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(WordPress Security Scan Source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check will display a number of results and details about your WordPress site …
(Hackertarget – WP security scan results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you can access all of this information about your WordPress site, then hackers can too.
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
The ability to see what 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 potentially valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about exploitable security weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to malicious users and botnets.
Blog Defender
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended by the hosting company. This blog had practically no value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being contacted by his host and noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred inside the site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to drive visitors to the site and steal their Paypal account information.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
This example illustrates the fact that every website has some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for potential security vulnerabilities …
And let’s you quickly fix these …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
Blog Defender comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
The plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), automate complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text replacements in databases, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
The second plugin provides your website or blog with security …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” performs a range of website protection functions (see “Features” section below).
The third plugin allows you to scan your files and content to see if any code in your files has been modified, and fix any problems found …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been inserted into your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your content without offering you anything in return).
Blog Defender – Training Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender security suite also includes seven step-by-step video tutorial modules and training documentation that will teach you exactly how to protect your website from hackers and bots …
(Source: Blog Defender)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Fast And Simple To Install And Set Up
The plugins included with Blog Defender are quite easy to install. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress administrator section and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow DIY training product that will take 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 use for free to get things done.
Additional plugin benefits include:
- Protect your site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If your site sells a digital product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Closed By Your Web Host And Delisted By Search Engines – When a site has been hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, website or blog could be closed by your webhost, or even blocked by search engines. In addition, your personal contacts can be spammed, your customer list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides a number of great features to website owners.
The product helps you fix all of the following issues:
- Hosting 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
- Monitoring Files
- Link Tracking
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help secure your website, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky WP themes and WP plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
User Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials that plugin users have submitted for the Blog Defender plugin:
”This is a seriously good product!” Simon Hodgkinson, www.hodgkinsonpublishing.com
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”I sure wish I’d had this before I lost over a dozen blogs just recently. Okay, it was my fault for not securing things more, BUT… I didn’t have a handy, current reference like this to turn to for quick help either.;)” Kathe Lucas – www.wackycentral.com
Plugin Tips
According to the product’s website, since the release of Blog Defender, no websites or blogs using Blog Defender were hacked.
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.”
The war on hackers is is a never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools that developers currently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier 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 risk-free, 30 day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Please Note: Current pricing for the Blog Defender plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing above was correct at the time this content was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Install These Plugins
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 ignore the importance of securing your web site.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, plugins and themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting security procedures such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities 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 how to avoid all the major security risks without paying a lot of money.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Solution
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