The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation is only going to get worse.
You can safely 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 reported that over 160,000+ WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked 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 security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website with a security vulnerability can can provide an opportunity to hackers. An unsecured website or blog not only presents wannabe hackers opportunities to improve their skills and win “respect” amongst their peers, but it can also serve as a platform for launching distributed denial of service attacks, distributing malware and information theft.
If a hacker can hack into and remotely control your web site, that site can then be employed to attack more valued web sites.
The reality is that malicious bots are trying to break into your website while you are reading these very words. Whether they can hack in successfully or not, depends on how difficult you have made it for hackers to keep persisting until they can either find a way to break in, or are forced to decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Check Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test returns various results and details about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – WP security check results. Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you are able to access all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
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 valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about any potential security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress Web Sites
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 creator of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by its webhost. This particular site was almost brand new and so had practically nothing to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred within his site, as well as the addition of several phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for security vulnerabilities …
And let’s you fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
The plugin lets you do secure backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud solutions using different backup methods, schedule complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text strings in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your website or blog with security …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
This plugin performs a range of vital site and file security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” scans your plugins, themes and core files to see whether anything has been tampered with, and repair problems …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Training Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes several video training guides and written guides that teach you exactly how to protect your website from malicious users …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
For more details go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Easy To Install
The plugins included with Blog Defender are very easy to install. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin user area and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a 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 free plugins to use to get the job done.
Some additional benefits of using the plugin include the following:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protect Your Info Products – If you sell info products (e.g. downloadable e-books, video training, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Host – When a site is hacked, you should expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. During this time, your, web presence can get closed by your webhost, or even deindexed by search engines. And if that isn’t enough to have to deal with, your personal contacts could end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides a number of great features to WordPress users.
The product provides fixes for the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- 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 Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process to help protect your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Product image: Blog Defender)
User Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials and comments that plugin customers have submitted regarding the Blog Defender product suite:
”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
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, no Blog Defender-secured sites have been hacked since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012.
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 ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers currently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’t cost a fortune and it’s as good if not better than many web security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
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, 100% money-back guarantee.
Product Licensing Cost
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: Pricing details of the Blog Defender plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the product is selling for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the product author when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing information here:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer 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, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of web security.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, plugins and themes up-to-date, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting a security procedure such as the one Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities are, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress site easier.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress
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