The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and this is getting worse.
You can safely 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 over 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot: 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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a security vulnerability can present an opportunity to hackers. No site Corporate sites, personal blogs, government web sites … even web sites owned by web security experts can and have been targeted.
If a malicious user can exploit a security flaw in your system and remotely control your web site, the website or blog can then be used to attack more highly-valued sites.
The truth is that software-driven bots are probably scouring for security exploits and trying to hack into your blog as you are reading this page right now. Whether they can get into your site successfully will depend on how hard you have made things for hackers to keep trying until they find a way to get access, or give up and go look for a less secure target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(WP Security Scan Product image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan will return a number of results and information about your WordPress installation …
(website security check results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can access all of this information, then so can hackers.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
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 on your server can be useful information to hackers, as this informs them about any security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and protect against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended. This site had practically nothing to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within his site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Source: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience should be enough to convince you that every website has some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for potential security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. Email), automate complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to new domains or server locations), do mass text replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides WordPress security …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 provides a range of essential website security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan WordPress sites to detect if anything in your files has been changed, and repair problems …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts 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 – Training Videos
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes step-by-step videos and PDF/DOC documentation that show you exactly what to do to protect your website from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
The plugins included with Blog Defender install like any plugin. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your administrator area and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a do-it-yourself 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 WordPress plugins you can use for free to get things done without paying for additional costs.
Some additional benefits of this plugin include the following:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Secure Your Info Products – If you sell information products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blacklisted By Your Host – When a website gets hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, sites can be closed by your host, or even blacklisted in search engines. In addition, 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.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender was created to locks down your site and keeps your business safe and secure 24/7.
Blog Defender addresses the following issues:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- File Monitoring
- Link Monitoring
- Block Known Offenders
- Automate WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps for securing your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Source: BlogDefender website)
Testimonials From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials plugin users have provided for 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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”I discovered some incredible security tricks!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Useful Tips
According to the plugin’s site, no websites or blogs using Blog Defender were hacked since Blog Defender was originally released.
The product developer 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 an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and technologies that developers presently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than most premium security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Blog Defender Plugin 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.
Software 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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: Pricing for Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing shown above was current when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product author when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use 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 sites.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, plugins and themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
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 website is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your installation easier.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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