The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s only going to get worse.
It’s probably safe to assume that if you haven’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+ legitimate WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
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 websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website or blog has no value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites are an opportunity to gain some advantage at your expense.
If a hacker can find a security weakness that allows them to access and control your web site, the blog can then be used to attack more valued sites.
The truth is that software-driven bots are most likely trying to hack into your website at this very moment. Whether they can do this successfully will depend on how difficult you can make things for them to keep trying until they discover a way to get access, or give up and go look for an easier 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 website through their WordPress security check …
(Website Security Check Source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check will yield a number of results and information about your site …
(WordPress security scan results. Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can freely access all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Source: BlogDefender site)
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 on your server are all valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about potential holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender
Product Description
Blog Defender 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-driven blog he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended by the hosting company. This site was new and had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred within the site, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files designed to drive visitors to the site and hijack Paypal account details.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
This example should be enough to convince you that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for security vulnerabilities …
And let’s you fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite of products comes with three plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender website)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, external servers and well-known cloud storage solutions using different backup methods (e.g. FTP), perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to new domains or server locations), do bulk text string replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides WordPress security …
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides a range of essential file and site security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan WordPress sites to see if anything has been modified, and fix problems …
(Source: Blog Defender)
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 work without reciprocating the favor).
Training Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes 7 step-by-step video training modules and written documentation that will show you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from malicious users …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
For more details go here:
Plugin 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 website:
Ready To Use In Minutes
The plugins are really easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugin folder via your administrator area and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow DIY training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free WordPress plugins to use to get the job done without paying for additional costs.
Additional benefits of this plugin include:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products From Being Shared Around The Net – If you sell a digital product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Closed By Your Web Host And Banned By Search Engines – When a website gets hacked, expect to go through a great deal of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, blog could get suspended by your host, or even deindexed by search engines. In addition, your contacts could end up being spammed, your customer list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender provides many great features to website owners.
Blog Defender addresses the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Host 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
- Track Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process for securing your site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials that customers have written about the Blog Defender security products:
”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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”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 developer, no Blog Defender-secured websites were hacked since Blog Defender’s release.
Matt 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 is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and technologies that developers presently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, is quite inexpensive 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 risk-free, thirty day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Please Note: Price details for the Blog Defender plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing above was current when this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing set by the product seller 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 current pricing:
Additional Plugin Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Download The Product
No matter what 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 securing your web sites.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WP installation, WP plugins and WP themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what your security responsibilities are as a website owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress site easier.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress Websites & Blogs
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