The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and this is getting worse.
It’s probably safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’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 began reporting that 162,000 legitimate WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image 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 web site with a vulnerability provides an opportunity to hackers. A vulnerable site offers hackers with a valuable platform to launch DDoS attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft.
If hackers can access and gain complete control of your website, your site can then be used to target more valued web sites.
The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are trying to hack into your web site as you are reading these very words. Whether they will do this successfully or not, will depend on how hard or easy you will make things for them to keep persisting until they either work out a way to get access, or are forced to give up and go look for an easier 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 site through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan will yield various results and details about your website setup …
(WP security scan results. Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the scanning tool that if you are able to see all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Screenshot 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 potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about any security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress Sites
Product Description
Blog Defender 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 developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother got hacked into. This site was new and so had literally nothing to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place inside the server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting visitors to the site and hijack financial details.
(Product image source: BlogDefender website)
This simple example shows that that all websites have value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security weaknesses in your website are …
And let’s you fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The Blog Defender security product comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #1 lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud solutions using different backup methods, perform full 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 database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides WordPress security …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 performs a range of essential site protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 lets you scan your files and content to see whether any code in your files has been modified, and fix any problems detected …
(Screenshot 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 people benefit from your content without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Tutorials Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes training videos plus written guides that will teach you exactly what to do to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Ready To Use In Minutes
The Blog Defender plugins are quite easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugins folder via your admin user section and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow DIY step-by-step training product that guides you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which plugins you can install for free to get the job done.
Additional benefits of using the plugin include the following:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Prevent Your Info Products From Being Shared Around The Net – If you are an info product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a website has been hacked, you can expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, account could be closed by your webhost, or even blocked by search engines. Additionally, your contacts can end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details could be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender provides many features to WP users.
The product covers the following issues:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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
- File Monitoring
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps to help protect your website, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Product image: Blog Defender)
User Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials plugin customers have written about the Blog Defender product suite:
”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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”I discovered some incredible security tricks!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender was first released, no Blog Defender-protected websites or blogs have been hacked.
Matt Garrett, the product developer also 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 knowledge and technologies that developers can currently harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need 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.
Product 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 refund guarantee.
Plugin Cost
Blog Defender is normally available for personal use only 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: The cost to purchase Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the software seller when you visit the plugin 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 Plugin Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Our Recommendation
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you cannot ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress software, plugins and WP themes up-to-date, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to malicious by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you understand what your responsibilities are as the site owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do if the security on your site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your site easier.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress Blogs
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