The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and it’s getting worse.
It’s 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 reported that over 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked 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)
As described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website or blog with a vulnerability can be an opportunity to hackers. Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you simply cannot afford to ignore. Business sites, personal blogs, government websites … even sites owned by online security experts can and have been targeted.
If a malicious user can exploit a web security flaw, your web site can then be used as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against larger and more highly-valued web sites.
The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are most likely trying to break into your website or blog while you are reading this page right now. Whether they will do this successfully depends on how challenging you have made things for hackers or bots to keep persisting until they find a way to get in, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less secure target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(WordPress Security Scan Image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and information about your site setup …
(website security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can access all of this information about your WordPress website, so can hackers.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Being able to see which 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 can all be potentially valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about any security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by its hosting company. This site was quite new and had practically nothing to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred within his server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his site.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
This example demonstrates that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you web site for potential security weaknesses …
And let’s you fix these quickly …
WP Plugins
The Blog Defender security product includes 3 plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
This plugin lets you do automated backups to your server, external servers and cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. FTP), automate full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides WordPress security …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” performs a range of website security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” allows you to scan your web site to see if anything has been tampered with, and fix any problems it finds …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been added to your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your work without reciprocating the favor).
Tutorials Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes 7 step-by-step video tutorial modules and written guides that teach you exactly how to protect your site from hackers …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Configure
The plugins install like every other WP plugin. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugins to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
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 free WordPress plugins to install to get things done.
Additional benefits include:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products – If you sell digital products (e.g. downloadable e-books, video training, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Web Host And Banned By Search Engines – When a website is hacked, you should expect to go through a serious amount of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. As a result, your, web presence can get suspended by your host, or even deindexed by search engines. And if that isn’t painful enough, your contacts can end up being spammed, your customer list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Features
Blog Defender provides many unique features to site owners.
Blog Defender covers the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help protect your web site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Testimonials From Plugin Customers
Here are a couple of the testimonials that plugin users have submitted for Blog Defender:
”Great way to secure your blog!” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.com
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”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
Plugin Tips
According to the product’s site, since Blog Defender was first released in 2012, no websites or blogs using Blog Defender were hacked.
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.”
Cybersecurity is an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers currently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, won’t cost you a fortune 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, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Price
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 cost of purchasing Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the plugin is selling for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the software seller when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Our Recommendation
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot ignore the importance of website security.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WP core files, plugins and WordPress themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to malicious by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you learn what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your site is hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress site easier.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress Web Sites
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