The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s only going to get 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.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot 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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a security vulnerability presents an opportunity to hackers. A compromised web site not only provides hackers opportunities to improve their skills and win “respect” from their peers, but it can also acts as a platform for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft.
If a malicious user can discover a vulnerability that allows them to gain remote control of your blog, the blog can then be employed to attack more valued sites.
The harsh reality is that brute-force software bots are most likely searching for security exploits and trying to hack into your site at this very moment. Whether they will get into your site successfully depends on how difficult you will make things for them to continue persisting until they can discover how to get access, or are forced to give up and go look for an easier target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Screenshot source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test will yield a number of results and information about your site setup …
(website security check results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this scanning tool that if you can access all of this information about your blog, so can hackers.
(Source: BlogDefender site)
The ability 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 are all potentially useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender Security Suite
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 looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by the webhost. This blog was devoid of content and had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being contacted by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred inside his site, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to drive unsuspecting visitors to the site and steal their Paypal account details.
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience should be enough to convince you that every website has value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security weaknesses in your WordPress site are …
And let’s you easily fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
Blog Defender includes three WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
The plugin lets you do automated backups to your server, external servers and cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods, perform complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to new domains or server locations), search and replace text strings in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides your website or blog with security …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
The plugin performs a range of vital site protection functions (see “Features” section below).
Plugin #3 lets you scan your plugins, WP themes and WP core files to see if anything has been changed, and repair problems …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your work without providing you any reciprocal benefit or value in return).
Video Training
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes 7 videos and training documentation that show you exactly how to protect your website from hackers …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Learn more here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Be Up And Running In Very Little Time
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite install just like any WordPress plugin. Simply upload them to your Plugins folder via your WP admin login and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free WordPress plugins to use to get the job done without incurring unnecessary costs.
Additional benefits of using the plugin include:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Secure Your Info Products – If your site sells information products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Web Host And Deindexed By Search Engines – When a website is hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, account could be closed by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. And if that isn’t painful enough, your contacts can end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Features
Blog Defender offers many unique features to WP users.
Blog Defender provides fixes for all of the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress 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
- File Monitoring
- Link Tracking
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help protect your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Product image: BlogDefender.com)
User Testimonials
Below are just a few of the testimonials and comments that customers have submitted for 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 discovered some incredible security tricks!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, no Blog Defender-secured websites have been hacked since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012.
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.”
Cybersecurity is an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and technologies that developers presently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than most web security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Blog Defender Plugin 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, full money-back guarantee.
Software 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.
Note: The price of Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price above was current when this review was written. This may not be the actual price set by the software seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use These Plugins
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 is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WordPress installation, plugins and themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting a security policy like the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what your security responsibilities are as the site owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your sites are attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your website easier.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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