The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and it’s getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s inevitable that at some point in time someone will attempt to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 162,000 WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image source: 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 attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website or blog with a vulnerability offers some value to hackers. A compromised website or blog presents hackers with a platform to launch DDoS attacks, spread malware and use your site to steal information from others.
If hackers can hack and gain any form of control of your site, that site can then be used to attack other highly-valued web sites.
The reality is that brute-force software bots are probably trying to break into your web site while you are reading this article right now. Whether they can be successful or not, depends on how difficult or easy you can make it for them to keep trying until they can either work out how to get in, 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 a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check will display a number of results and information about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – WP security check results. Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to see all of this information, then so can hackers.
(Source: BlogDefender website)
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 can be valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to malicious attackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother got hacked into. This particular blog was almost brand new and so had literally no value to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and observing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place within his site, as well as the addition of several malicious files designed to drive unsuspecting visitors to the site and hijack their Paypal account details.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
Matt’s experience shows that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your web site are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly and easily …
Plugins
The product suite comes with three plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
This 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. FTP), automate full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your website with security …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
Plugin #2 provides a range of site security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Plugin #3 scans your files and content to see if anything unusual has been altered, and fix any problems it detects …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your content without offering anything in return).
Blog Defender – Tutorials Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender product suite also includes step-by-step training in video format plus PDF/DOC documentation that will teach you exactly how to protect your website from hackers …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below 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 web site:
Ready To Go To Work In No Time
The plugins included with Blog Defender are really easy to install. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow step-by-step training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free plugins to install to get the job done inexpensively.
Some additional benefits of the plugin include the following:
- Secure your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If your site sells an info product (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a website is hacked, you should expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. As a result, your, websites can be closed by your host, or even blocked by search engines. And if this isn’t painful enough, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal or financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender was created to keep your sites and your business safe and secure 24/7.
The product helps you fix the following issues:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps for securing your your WordPress installation, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Product image: BlogDefender.com)
User Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials 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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”Just one tip could have prevented my blogs getting hacked!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012, no sites using Blog Defender 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 is a never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers presently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with 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 no-risk, 30 day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
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.
Note: The price of this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing when this review was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the software developer when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
What We Recommend
No matter what type 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 web security.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WordPress installation, plugins and themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security procedures like the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your websites are compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress site easier.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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