The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and the situation is getting worse.
It’s probably safe to 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 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered websites 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 described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a security vulnerability provides some value opportunity to hackers. A vulnerable web site offers malicious users with a valuable platform for stealth attacks, spreading malware and to engage in information theft.
If hackers can exploit a vulnerability that allows them to gain remote access and control of your site, that site can then be used to target larger and more valuable sites.
The truth is that malicious bots are most likely trying to hack into your web site as you are reading this page right now. Whether they will successfully hack in depends on how hard you have made things for hackers 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 About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test returns a number of results and information about your website …
(website security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can see all of this information about your WordPress site, then hackers can too.
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
Being able 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 all be useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about any potential holes or weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to malicious attackers and bots.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by the webhost. This particular blog had literally no value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place inside the server, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience is evidence that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for potential security vulnerabilities …
And let’s you fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite includes three plugins:
The first plugin in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and leading cloud-based storage solutions using different backup methods, automate full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
The plugin performs a range of essential site security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” allows you to scan your WordPress plugins, themes and core files to see if anything has been tampered with, and repair any problems detected …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
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 others benefit from your content without providing any reciprocal value or benefit in return).
Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes several videos and printable guides that will show you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from malicious users …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
Go here to learn more:
Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure
The Blog Defender plugins install like any WP plugin. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free plugins you should use to get things done inexpensively.
Additional benefits and advantages include:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Helps Avoid Intellectual Property Theft – If your site sells a digital product (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blacklisted By Search Engines – When a site is hacked, expect to go through a great deal of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, web presence can get suspended by your host, or even blacklisted in search engines. And if this is not painful enough, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal details or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Features
Blog Defender offers a number of great features to WordPress users.
The product covers the following issues:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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
- File Monitoring
- Link Monitoring
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process to help secure your web site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Source: BlogDefender site)
User Feedback
Here are a few of the testimonials and comments that plugin users have written 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 Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012, no Blog Defender-secured websites or blogs have been hacked.
The product developer also 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.”
The war on hackers is an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers presently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’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.
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, 100% refund 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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: Current pricing for the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the pricing at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing:
Additional Plugin Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
The Bottom Line
Regardless of the kind 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 secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like making sure that your WP core files, plugins and WP themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you understand what your responsibilities are as a website owner, 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 which tools can make the task of securing your website easier.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender
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