The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and it’s 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 over 160,000+ WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Image: BlogDefender website)
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 sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your site offers little to no value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites are valuable to a malicious user.
If hackers can find a software flaw in your security that allows them to remotely take control of your blog, your blog can then be employed to attack more valuable websites.
The reality is that hackers are looking for security weaknesses and trying to break into your site at this very moment. Whether they will successfully hack in or not, will depend on how difficult or easy you will make it for hackers to continue trying until they can discover a way to get in, or decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Scan Product image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test returns various results and information about your site …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security check results. Product 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, then hackers can too.
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
The ability 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 on your server can be potentially useful information to hackers, as this informs them about any potential holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender Security Plugin
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 developer of BlogDefender began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother got hacked into. This particular site was almost brand new and so had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
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 within the site, as well as the addition of several malicious files designed to lure unsuspecting visitors to the site and steal financial details.
(Source: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience should be enough to illustrate the fact that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you web site for security vulnerabilities …
And let’s you quickly and easily fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
Blog Defender comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
The first plugin in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
The plugin lets you do secure backups to your server, external servers and well-known cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. Email), schedule full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to new domains or server locations), search and replace text in your database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your website or blog with security …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” provides a range of site and file protection functions (see “Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 lets you scan WordPress sites to see if any code in your files has been changed, and fix any problems it detects …
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious content 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).
Blog Defender – Step-By-Step Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes several videos and PDF/DOC guides that show you exactly how to protect your website from hackers …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
More info:
Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
The plugins install like any plugin. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugins to your Plugins folder via your admin account and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself 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 the job done inexpensively.
Additional benefits include:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site 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 A Tragic Situation – When a website gets hacked, expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, website or blog can be closed by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. And if that is not enough to have to deal with, your contacts could end up being spammed, your customer list and financial details can be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender offers many great features to WP users.
The product provides fixes for the following issues:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- Monitoring Files
- Link Tracking
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help secure your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Source: BlogDefender site)
Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials that plugin users have submitted regarding the Blog Defender solution:
“You are literally walked through the process!” Nikki Stephens, www.nikkistephens.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
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012, no websites or blogs using Blog Defender were 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 constant game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers can access. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, won’t cost a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most web 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 no-risk, thirty day, full money-back guarantee.
Product Licensing 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.
Note: Pricing for Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the software retails for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the software developer when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing information:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Our Recommendation
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot ignore the importance of web security.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security procedures such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what your responsibilities are as a site owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major WordPress security holes without paying a lot of money.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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