The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and this is getting 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 reported that over 160,000+ WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a security vulnerability provides some value opportunity to hackers. An unsecured website not only offers hackers opportunities to improve their hacking skills and win “respect” among their peers, but it can also acts as a valuable resource for launching denial of service attacks, spreading malware and defrauding online users through information theft.
If a malicious user can hack into and remotely control your site, the site can then be used to target larger and more highly-valued sites.
The harsh reality is that hackers are most likely trying to break into your site as you are reading these very words. Whether they will achieve this or not, will depend on how hard or easy you will make it for them to keep persisting until they either can discover how to get in, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less secure target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Scan Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check will yield a number of results and details about your website setup …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security scan results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can access all of this information about your website, hackers can too.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Being able to see what 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 are all valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about potential holes or weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and help to protect it against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Suite
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into. This site was fairly new and so had literally no value to offer, yet it was still 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 site, as well as the addition of several malicious files designed to lure unsuspecting visitors to the site and steal their Paypal account information.
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience shows that that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for potential security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #1 lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and cloud-based solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), schedule full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides your WordPress web site with security …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” performs a range of vital file and site security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan your content and files to detect whether any code in your files has been found, and fix problems …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Video Training
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes 7 training modules in video format plus PDF/DOC documentation that show you exactly how to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Fast And Simple To Install And Configure
The plugins are really easy to install. Just upload a zip file containing the plugins to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a step-by-step training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which WordPress plugins you can use for free to get things done inexpensively.
Additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Helps Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you are an information product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Suspended By Your Web Host And Delisted By Search Engines – When a site is hacked, expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, sites could get closed by your host, or even deindexed in search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details or financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender provides many features to web site owners.
The product helps you fix all of the following issues:
- Host Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- Monitor Files
- Monitor Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process for securing your site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
User Feedback
Here are a few of the testimonials and comments plugin users have submitted regarding the Blog Defender security products:
”I’ve had to go through the inconvenience of a hacked blog before and let me tell you it’s not nice. With online security becoming an increasing problem, especially with WordPress, this is a great way to secure your blog. I’ll be following Matt’s training and securing all my blogs…Great job.” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.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
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012, no Blog Defender-secured websites have been hacked.
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 is a constant game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers currently have access to. 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 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 no-risk, 30 day, complete refund guarantee.
Software 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 to purchase this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this article was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product author when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing information:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
We Recommend
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your website or blog is something you cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, WP plugins and themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security policies like the one that 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 if the security on your site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress website easier.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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