The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and the situation is getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s inevitable that at some point in time someone will attempt to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 162,000 WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked 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 described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website or blog has nothing to offer to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, every website is an opportunity to gain some benefit at your expense.
If someone can exploit a vulnerability, that site can then be used to target more valued web sites.
The reality is that hackers are probably scouring for security exploits and trying to break into your blog right now. Whether they can get into your site successfully or not, depends on how challenging you have made things for hackers to keep persisting until they work out a way to get access, or give up and go look for a less secure target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Scan Image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test returns various results and information about your WordPress site …
(WP security scan results. Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the scanning tool that if you can access all of this information about your site, hackers can too.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
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 are all useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about exploitable vulnerabilities, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and help to protect it against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender WordPress Security Product Suite
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package 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 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 by the hosting company. This particular site had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being contacted by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place inside his server, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender website)
Matt’s experience demonstrates that every website has some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for potential security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite comes with 3 plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), schedule full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do mass text replacements in databases, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 provides your site with security …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” provides a range of essential site protection functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan WordPress sites to detect if anything has been altered, and fix any problems it uncovers …
(Source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been added to your site, 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 video guides and downloadable documentation that will teach you exactly what to do to protect your website from malicious users …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Ready To Go To Work In Very Little Time
The plugins install just like any WP plugin. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin user login and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which WordPress plugins you can install for free to get the job done.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Prevent Your Info Products From Being Stolen – If your site sells digital products (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Web Host And Delisted By Search Engines – When a website gets hacked, expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, websites can get closed by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. Additionally, your personal contacts could be spammed, your customer list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Features
Blog Defender make your your WordPress website invisible to hackers and malicious botnets.
Blog Defender addresses the following security areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- 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
- Monitoring Files
- Track Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process for securing your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to quickly identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Source: Blog Defender)
Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials plugin customers have submitted for the Blog Defender solution:
”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
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender was first released in 2012, no Blog Defender-secured websites have been hacked.
Matt 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.”
Cybersecurity is is a never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers currently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t require 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.
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 risk-free, thirty day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software 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: Pricing for the Blog Defender plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price when this article was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Install These Plugins
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot afford to ignore the importance of website security.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress core files, WP plugins and WordPress themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
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 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 WordPress website easier.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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