The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation 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.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 160,000+ WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Source: 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)
As reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website or blog with a vulnerability can be seen as a potential opportunity to hackers. A compromised website presents hackers with a valuable resource for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft.
If someone can find a security flaw, your site can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target other valuable sites.
The truth is that malicious bots are very likely trying to break into your website or blog as you are reading this page right now. Whether they will hack into your site or not, depends on how challenging you have made it for hackers and bots to keep persisting until they can discover a way to get access, or are forced to 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 website through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Product image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test will return a number of results and details about your site setup …
(website security check results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to see all of this information about your WordPress website, then hackers can too.
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Being able 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 can be valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about any security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and protect against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress Websites & Blogs
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog 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 attacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being suspended by his host and observing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place within his server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security holes in your WordPress installation are …
And let’s you quickly fix these …
WordPress Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do secure backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods, perform complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 provides your site with security …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
The plugin provides a range of file and site protection functions (see “Features” section below).
Plugin #3 scans WordPress sites to detect if anything in your files has been found, and fix the problem …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts 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 reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes a number of step-by-step training videos and written documentation that will teach you exactly how to protect your website from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
For more details go here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Quick And Easy To Install And Configure
The plugins install just like any regular WordPress plugin. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WP admin account and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a step-by-step training product that guides you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which plugins you can use for free to get things done without paying for unnecessary costs.
Additional benefits include the following:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If your site sells an info product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Host – When a site has been hacked, you should expect to go through a great deal of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, websites could be suspended by your host, or even deindexed in search engines. And if this isn’t enough to have to deal with, your personal contacts can be 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 WordPress users.
The product addresses the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress 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
- Monitoring Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps to help secure your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to quickly identify risky themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot: Blog Defender)
Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that users have submitted for the Blog Defender plugin:
”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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”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
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, no websites secured with the solution were hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
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.”
Cybersecurity is is a never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and technologies that developers can get their hands on. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, won’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.
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.
Note: Pricing for Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the software sells for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the product seller when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Get The Product
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like making sure that your WordPress installation, plugins and themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to malicious by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you understand what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your site is attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress site easier.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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