The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and this is only going to get worse.
You can safely 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 over 162,000 WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
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 WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a security vulnerability can be seen as a potential opportunity to hackers. A vulnerable website offers hackers with a valuable resource to launch DDoS attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft.
If a hacker can discover a vulnerability in your security, that web site can then be used to target larger and more valuable websites.
The reality is that software-driven bots are scouring for security exploits and trying to hack into your website or blog as you are reading this. Whether they will get into your site or not, depends on how hard or easy you have made it for hackers and botnets to keep trying until they either find a way to get access, or give up and go look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Scan Product image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will display various results and information about your website …
(WP security check results. Screenshot image: 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 site, so can hackers.
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Being able 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 all be useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about potential holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
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 webhost. This particular site had practically no value to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside his server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to drive unsuspecting visitors to the site and steal their financial information.
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for security holes …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
The Blog Defender security product comes with three plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated backups to your server, external servers and leading cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods, schedule complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text strings in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
The “WP Security” plugin performs a range of website protection functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” allows you to scan your files and content to see if any code in your files has been altered, and repair any problems it uncovers …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been added to your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your work without offering you any reciprocal benefit in return).
Blog Defender – Video Tutorials
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes a number of step-by-step training videos plus training documentation that teach you exactly how to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender website)
Learn more here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
The Blog Defender plugins are quite easy to install. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that will guide you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free WordPress plugins to use to get things done inexpensively.
Additional benefits of using this plugin include the following:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Your Info Products From Being Stolen – If you sell info products (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a site is hacked, expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, website could be suspended by your host, or even deindexed in search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business or financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender provides a number of great features to WP users.
The product helps you fix the following areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- Monitoring Files
- Link Tracking
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help protect your your WordPress installation, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and WP plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials plugin users have published about Blog Defender:
”I’ve had to go through the inconvenience of a hacked blog before and let me tell you it’s not nice. With online security becoming an increasing problem, especially with WordPress, this is a great way to secure your blog. I’ll be following Matt’s training and securing all my blogs…Great job.” 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
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, since Blog Defender was first released, no websites secured by the solution have been hacked.
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 is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers can currently harness. 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 many 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, thirty day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Price
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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: Price details for the Blog Defender software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing above was correct at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the software author 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 the latest price:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
Regardless of the 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 simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress installation, plugins and themes up-to-date, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security policies like the one Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities are, 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 how to avoid major WordPress security holes without paying a lot of money.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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