The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s only going to get worse.
It’s safe to assume that if you haven’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 websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot: 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)
According to leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website with a security vulnerability can be seen as a potential opportunity to hackers. A compromised site not only presents new hackers opportunities to improve their hacking skills and claim “bragging rights” among their peers, but it can also acts as a valuable resource for distributed attacks, spreading malware and participating in information theft.
If a hacker can exploit a way to compromise the control of your website or blog, that web site can then be used as a “bot” to attack other valued websites.
The harsh reality is that malicious bots are most likely looking for security exploits and trying to break into your blog as you are reading this page. Whether they can achieve this depends on how hard or easy you have made things for hackers to keep persisting until they discover how to get access, or give up and go look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Website Security Scan Source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns various results and details about your website …
(WP security scan results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the scanning tool that if you can see all of this information, then so can hackers.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Being able to see what version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories can all be potentially valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about any exploitable vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Plugin
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 creator of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended. This particular site had literally no value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place inside the server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his site.
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for potential security holes …
And let’s you easily fix these …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 plugins:
Plugin #1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 lets you do secure backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud storage solutions using different backup methods, automate complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
The second plugin provides your WordPress website with security …
(Source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides a range of essential website protection functions (see “Features” section below).
The third plugin scans your WP plugins, themes and core files to detect if anything has been modified, and fix problems …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been inserted into your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your hard work without offering you anything in return).
Blog Defender – Video Tutorials
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes 7 training modules in video format and downloadable guides that teach you exactly how to protect your website from malicious users …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
More info:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement
The Blog Defender plugins install just like any WordPress plugin. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free WordPress plugins you should install to get things done without paying additional expenses.
Some additional benefits and advantages include:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products From Being Stolen – If you’re an information product creator (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Search Engines – When a website gets hacked, 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. As a result, your, site could be suspended by your webhost, or even blocked by search engines. Additionally, your contacts could end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides many features to WP users.
Blog Defender addresses the following areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- Monitor Files
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process for securing your web site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
User Feedback
Here are some of the testimonials and comments that customers have written about Blog Defender:
”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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”My business is built around the WordPress platform and I’m embarrassed to admin I’ve been slack in the security department. However, Matt’s training soon put that right! I followed each detailed video to the letter and discovered some incredible security tricks and plugins I’d never heard of before. Better still, all the plugins were free to download too! The end result? My WordPress membership site is now locked down tighter than Parkhurst at midnight and if anybody tries hacking it, I’ll be the first to know! thanks again Matt, I’m off to secure the rest of the blogs in my portfolio!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, no Blog Defender-secured websites or blogs were hacked since Blog Defender’s release in 2012.
Matt Garrett 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 an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and technologies that developers can currently harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates 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.
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, full money-back 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.. Price = $47.00.
Please Note: Price details for this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the pricing when this review was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product seller when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use These Plugins
Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your web sites is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, plugins and WordPress themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if 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.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress Web Sites
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