The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and things are only going to get worse.
It’s safe to 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 160,000+ WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Image: 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)
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.
Every website or blog with a vulnerability provides some type of opportunity to hackers. A compromised blog presents hackers with a valuable platform to launch DDoS attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft.
If hackers can discover a way to compromise the control of your site, your web site can then be employed to target other valued web sites.
The truth is that malicious bots are most likely scouring for vulnerabilities and trying to break into your website right now. Whether they can get into your site successfully or not, will depend on how hard or easy you have made things for hackers and botnets to keep trying until they can either work out how to get access, or are forced to decide to look for a less secure target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Check Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check will display a number of results and details about your site setup …
(WordPress security scan results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can access all of this information, hackers can too.
(Image source: Blog Defender)
The ability to see what version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories can be potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about any security weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a simple way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to malicious users and botnets.
Blog Defender
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 the BlogDefender security suit began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This site was quite new and so had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being suspended by his host and observing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within his site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to drive unsuspecting visitors to the site and steal their financial details.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for security holes …
And let’s you fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
Blog Defender – Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 plugins for WordPress:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and leading cloud backup solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. Email), perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides WordPress security …
(Source: Blog Defender)
This plugin provides a range of site and file security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 scans your website or blog to detect if any of your files have been found, and repair the problem …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious content have been added to your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes several step-by-step training videos plus downloadable documentation that teach you exactly how to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Ready To Use In Minutes
The Blog Defender plugins install just like every WP plugin. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a step-by-step training product that will take you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which plugins you can use for free to get things done.
Additional plugin benefits include:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you are an info product creator (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a site has been hacked, you should expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, blog can get closed by your host, or even deindexed in search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal and financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Features
Blog Defender was created to keep your sites and your business safe and secure 24/7.
The product helps you fix all of the following security areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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
- Monitor Files
- Track Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps to help protect your web site, addressing hosting security, 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: BlogDefender website)
Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials plugin users have provided for the Blog Defender security products:
”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
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”I sure wish I’d had this before I lost over a dozen blogs just recently. Okay, it was my fault for not securing things more, BUT… I didn’t have a handy, current reference like this to turn to for quick help either.;)” Kathe Lucas – www.wackycentral.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin’s site, no Blog Defender-secured websites have been hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
Matt Garrett 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 is a never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools that developers presently have access to. 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 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 no-risk, 30 day, complete refund guarantee.
Product 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.. Price = $47.00.
Please Note: The cost to purchase the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the product retails for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software seller 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 Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use These Plugins
No matter what 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 securing your web site.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress software, plugins and WP 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 responsibilities as a website owner 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 task of securing your site easier.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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