The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that over 162,000 WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
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.
You may think that your website has nothing to offer to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites are an opportunity to gain some benefit at your expense.
If a malicious user can find a flaw in your security, that site can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against larger and more highly-valued sites.
The truth is that brute-force software bots are trying to break into your website or blog at this very moment. Whether they can achieve this or not, depends on how difficult you will make things for hackers to continue persisting until they either can work out a way to get in, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less protected 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 …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Scan Image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the scan will yield a number of results and information about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security check results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you are able to freely access all of this information, then so can hackers.
(Image source: Blog Defender)
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 on your server can all be useful information to hackers, as this informs them about exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Suite
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended by its webhost. This particular site had practically no value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place inside his server, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting victims to the site and hijack financial information.
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
This example provides the valuable lesson that all websites have value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your WordPress site are …
And let’s you fix these quickly and easily …
WP Plugins
Blog Defender comes with three plugins for WordPress:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do secure backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud-based solutions using a number of backup methods, automate complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides WordPress security …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #2 performs a range of file and site security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” allows you to scan your content and files to see if anything has been found, and fix problems …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your content without reciprocating the favor).
Video Tutorials
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes 7 step-by-step training modules (video) and downloadable guides that will show you exactly what you need to do to protect your website from malicious attacks …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Quick And Easy To Install And Set Up
The plugins install like every other plugin. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a practical training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which plugins you can install for free to get the job done inexpensively.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Theft – If you’re an information product creator (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a website gets 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 the issues these have caused. During this time, your, website or blog could be closed by your webhost, or even blacklisted in search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business or financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender offers many features to web site owners.
Blog Defender covers the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Host Security Advisory
- WP 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
- Monitoring Files
- Monitor Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps for securing your your WordPress installation, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image source: BlogDefender website)
Testimonials From Plugin Customers
Here are some of the testimonials and feedback that plugin users have submitted regarding the Blog Defender product:
”Great way to secure your blog!” 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 plugin’s site, no websites or blogs using Blog Defender have been hacked since Blog Defender’s release in 2012.
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.”
The war on hackers is an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools 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.
Blog Defender 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, 30 day, 100% refund guarantee.
Product 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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: The cost of purchasing Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the product is being retailed for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, 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, you cannot afford to ignore the importance of web security.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress software, WordPress plugins and themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security policies like 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 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 site easier.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress Websites & Blogs
***
***