The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s getting worse.
You can safely 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 legitimate WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Source: 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)
As described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website is of no interest to hackers, but the reality is that every website is valuable to a malicious user.
If hackers can find a way to break in and remotely take control of your web site, that website can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyberattack against larger and more valuable web sites.
The reality is that brute-force software bots are probably trying to hack into your website at this very moment. Whether they will achieve this or not, depends on how challenging you can make it for them to keep persisting until they work out how to get access, or give up and decide to look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Check Source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan returns various results and information about your website …
(WP security scan results. Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can access all of this information about your blog, hackers can too.
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
Being able 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 can all be valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable security weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a simple way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender 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 creator of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This blog had practically nothing to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place inside the site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience demonstrates that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security weaknesses in your web site are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
WP Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
The plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and popular cloud backup solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. Email), perform full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to different domains or server locations), do bulk text string replacements in databases, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
This plugin provides a range of website protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
The third plugin allows you to scan your files and content to see if any code in your files has been changed, and repair any problems it finds …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been inserted into your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender product suite also includes video guides and downloadable documentation that teach you exactly how to protect your website from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Fast And Simple To Install And Use
The Blog Defender plugins are really easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugin folder via your WP admin user login and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow step-by-step training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free plugins to install to get the job done inexpensively.
Some additional benefits include the following:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If you sell info products (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Closed By Your Web Host And Delisted By Search Engines – When a site gets hacked, you should expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, web presence could get suspended by your webhost, or even deindexed in search engines. And if that is not enough to have to deal with, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides a number of features to WordPress users.
The product addresses the following areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress 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
- File Monitoring
- Monitor Links
- Block Known Offenders
- Automate WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps to help protect your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
User Testimonials
Below are just a few of the testimonials and feedback users have submitted for Blog Defender:
”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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“Sure wish I’d had this before I lost over a dozen blogs just recently!” Kathe Lucas – www.wackycentral.com
Useful Tips
According to the plugin’s website, since Blog Defender was first released, no Blog Defender-secured websites have been hacked.
Matt Garrett, 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 is a never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers can get their hands on. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’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.
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 risk-free, thirty day, full money-back 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Please Note: The cost to purchase the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product retails for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product author when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your websites is something you simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, plugins and themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security 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 the security on your site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major security risks without paying a lot of money.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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