The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and the situation is getting worse.
You can safely assume that if you haven’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 reported that 162,000 WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image 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 websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website or blog has no significant value to hackers, but the reality is that every website has value to a malicious user.
If someone can exploit a flaw in your setup that allows them to gain complete control of your blog, the site can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against other valued sites.
The harsh reality is that brute-force software bots are probably trying to hack into your blog as you are reading this article. Whether they can successfully hack in will depend on how difficult or easy you will make it for hackers to keep trying until they either find how to get in, or give up and decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan returns various results and details about your WordPress setup …
(WP security check results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you are able to see all of this information, so can hackers.
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
Being able 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 in your site can all be potentially useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their software 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 WordPress Security Product Suite
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This blog was quite new and had practically no value to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed by his host and noticing 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: BlogDefender website)
This example should be enough to illustrate the fact that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for potential security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite includes three WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and popular cloud backup solutions using a number of backup methods, schedule complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides your website or blog with security …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 performs a range of file and site protection functions (see “Features” section below).
The third plugin scans your files and content to detect whether any code in your files has been tampered with, and repair the problem …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content 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 – Step-By-Step Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes several step-by-step training in video format plus printable guides that will show you exactly how to protect your site from hackers …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Ready To Go To Work In No Time
The plugins are very easy to install. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your admin area and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow step-by-step training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which plugins you can use for free to get things done.
Additional benefits and advantages include:
- Protect your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protect Your Info Products – If your site sells a digital product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Web Host And Delisted By Search Engines – When a site is hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, sites could get suspended by your host, or even blocked by search engines. And if that isn’t painful enough, your contacts could end up being spammed, your customer list and financial details could be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Features
Blog Defender provides many unique features to WordPress users.
The product covers the following issues:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- File Monitoring
- Monitoring Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help secure your site, addressing hosting security, using tools to identify risky WP themes and plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot: Blog Defender)
Feedback From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials and comments that 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
***
”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 product’s website, since Blog Defender was first released, no sites secured by the product have been hacked.
Matt Garrett, the product developer also 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 ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools that developers presently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t need 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.
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, complete refund guarantee.
Software Price
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.
Note: Price details for Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the plugin is being retailed for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the software developer 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 Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Install These Plugins
No matter what kind 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 platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WP installation, plugins and WordPress themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your security responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress installation easier.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Suite
***
***