The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and things are 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 before someone attempts to hack into your site.
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?
(Image source: 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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website has nothing to offer to hackers, but the reality is that every website has value to a malicious user.
If hackers can find a security opening in your system that lets them remotely take control of your site, that site can then be used to attack more valuable web sites.
The truth is that software-driven bots are scouring for vulnerabilities and trying to hack into your web site at this very moment. Whether they can get into your site successfully will depend on how difficult you can make things for hackers to keep trying until they can work out a way to get access, or are forced to give up and decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Check Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan returns a number of results and information about your website …
(Hackertarget – website security check results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can access all of this information, so can hackers.
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
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 in your site can all be potentially valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about any security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to malicious attackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress Websites
Product Description
The product 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 blog was not being used and so had practically nothing to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place within his server, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to drive unsuspecting victims to the site and steal their financial information.
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
This simple example provides the valuable lesson that all websites have value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security holes in your WordPress installation are …
And let’s you fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – Plugins
Blog Defender includes three plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud backup solutions using different backup methods (e.g. Email), perform full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text strings in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides WordPress security …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
This plugin provides a range of essential file and site security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Plugin #3 allows you to scan WordPress sites to detect if any of your files have been changed, and fix problems …
(Source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 people benefit from your work without providing any reciprocal benefit or value in return).
Blog Defender – Training Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes several step-by-step tutorial videos and written guides that show you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from malicious users …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Benefits
Here 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:
Be Up And Running In Very Little Time
The plugins install just like every other WordPress plugin. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your administrator section and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that will guide you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free WordPress plugins you should install to get things done.
Some additional benefits of the plugin include:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Your Info Products From Being Freely Distributed – If you are a digital product author (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a website has been hacked, you can expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, web presence could be suspended by your webhost, or even blacklisted by search engines. Additionally, your contacts could be spammed, your customer list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender was created to lock down your site and keep your business safe and secure 24/7.
Blog Defender provides fixes for the following areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- 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 Blocking
- Monitor Files
- Link Monitoring
- Block Known Offenders
- Automating Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps to help secure your site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Product image source: Blog Defender)
User Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials and comments plugin customers have written about the Blog Defender security suite:
”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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”A top level force against hacker attacks!” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, no Blog Defender-secured websites were hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
Matt Garrett, the product developer 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.”
Cybersecurity is is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers can currently access. The latest release of Blog Defender creates 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 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 no-risk, thirty day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Cost
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 the Blog Defender plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the software retails for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
We Recommend
Regardless of the kind 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 web security.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, WP plugins and WordPress themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security procedures like the one Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress website easier.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Product Suite
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