The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide 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 began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot: 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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every site with a security vulnerability can be seen as a potential opportunity to hackers. No blog is completely safe from being targeted. Large, medium and small web sites, personal blogs, government web sites … even web sites owned by web security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If a malicious user can find a security vulnerability, that site can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target other valuable web sites.
The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are most likely looking for security weaknesses and trying to hack into your website while you are reading this article. Whether they can hack into your site successfully will depend on how difficult you will make it for hackers and bots to keep trying until they work out how to get access, or are forced to give up and go look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Scan Product image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test will return a number of results and details about your WordPress installation …
(WordPress security check results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to freely access all of this information, so can hackers.
(Source: BlogDefender site)
The ability 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 on your server can all be valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about any security vulnerabilities, especially where the owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress Websites & Blogs
Product Description
The product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This particular blog was quite new and had literally nothing to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred inside the site, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files designed to drive visitors to the site and hijack their financial information.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
This simple example should be enough to illustrate the fact that every website has value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for security holes …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite includes 3 WordPress plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud-based backup solutions using different backup methods (including FTP and email backups), schedule complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to different domains or server locations), do mass text replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your website with security …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
The plugin provides a range of essential file and site security functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Plugin #3 scans your files and content to detect whether anything in your files has been changed, and fix any problems it finds …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
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 others benefit from your hard work without providing you anything of value in return).
Step-By-Step Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes seven video training modules and PDF/DOC documentation that will teach you exactly how to protect your website from malicious attacks …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Plugin Benefits
Below 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 web site:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
The plugins included with Blog Defender install like any regular plugin. Just upload them to your Plugins folder via your admin login and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a do-it-yourself training product that will guide you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free plugins to use to get the job done.
Some additional plugin benefits include:
- Protect your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Secure Your Info Products – If your site sells information products (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Search Engines – When a website has been hacked, you can expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, site could get suspended by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. In addition, your contacts could be spammed, your subscriber list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Features
Blog Defender was designed to locks down your site and keeps your business safe and secure 24/7.
The product addresses the following security areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress 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
- Monitoring Files
- Track Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process for securing your web site, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
Testimonials
Below are just some testimonials and comments that plugin users have published about 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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”Since working with blogs, I… like many others, have been concerned about how to handle the constant threat of blog attacks. After having a look at Blog Defender you can’t help but become most aware of the vulnerable areas all bloggers need to protect. Blog Defender is viable WordPress blog security prevention system that offers video instruction along with 3 software plugins that are free to download. The instruction shows the optimum settings on how to use the free plugins that will allow you top level force against blog hacker attacks.” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, no Blog Defender-secured sites have been hacked since Blog Defender was originally released.
Matt Garrett 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 that developers presently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, won’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.
Blog Defender 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, complete refund guarantee.
Product Licensing Pricing
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.. Cost = $47.00.
Please Note: The cost of purchasing Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing when this content was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the product author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Plugin Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Get This Product
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot ignore the importance of securing your web sites.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, WP plugins and themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security procedures like the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your site easier.
For more details, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender Security Plugin
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