The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and things are only going to get worse.
It’s probably 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-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Image: 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)
According to leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website with a security vulnerability provides an opportunity to hackers. No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot ignore the importance of web security. Large, medium and small business websites, personal blogs, government web sites … even websites owned by web security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If hackers can find a security flaw that allows them to gain any form of control of your site, that website can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyber attack against more valued sites.
The reality is that hackers are very likely trying to break into your website or blog at this very moment. Whether they can get in successfully will depend on how challenging you will make things for hackers to keep persisting until they discover a way to break in, or are forced to give up and go look for a less secure target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress 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 Check Screenshot image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and details about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – website security check results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to see all of this information, then so can hackers.
(Source: Blog Defender)
The ability to see which version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories in your site can all be useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about any holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the creator of the BlogDefender security suit began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended. This site was devoid of content and had literally no value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being contacted by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside his server, as well as the addition of several phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Source: BlogDefender site)
This simple example illustrates the fact that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for security weaknesses …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
WP Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite of products comes with three plugins for WordPress:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Source: BlogDefender website)
The plugin lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, external servers and popular cloud storage solutions using different backup methods (e.g. Email), schedule complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides WordPress security …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
The “WordPress Security” plugin provides a range of essential site security functions (see “Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan your content and files to see if code in your files has been altered, and fix the problem …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been inserted into your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your work without reciprocating the favor).
Step-By-Step Tutorial Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes a number of step-by-step training videos and downloadable documentation that teach you exactly what to do to protect your website from malicious users …
(Source: Blog Defender)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
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 site:
Fast Installation
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite are really easy to install. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a step-by-step training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free plugins you should use to get things done.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Helps Avoid Intellectual Property Theft – If you’re an information product author (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Suspended By Your Web Host And Banned By Search Engines – When a site has been hacked, you should expect to go through a great deal of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, website or blog could get suspended by your host, or even deindexed by search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender was created to keeps your site and your business safe and secure 24/7.
Blog Defender covers the following issues:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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
- Monitoring Files
- Track Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process to help secure your website, addressing hosting security, using tools to identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Feedback From Customers
Here are just a few of the testimonials and feedback that users have written about 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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”I discovered some incredible security tricks!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012, no Blog Defender-secured sites were hacked.
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.”
Cybersecurity is an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and technologies that developers can 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 many premium 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, complete refund guarantee.
Product 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: The price of Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the plugin sells for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software seller 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 help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Our Recommendation
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you cannot ignore.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, plugins and WP themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you understand what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your site is hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress site easier.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress Websites & Blogs
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