The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s 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.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website or blog provides little to no value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites are valuable to a malicious user.
If hackers can discover a software weakness in your security, the website can then be used as part of a larger network of “bots” to target larger and more highly-valued sites.
The reality is that software-driven bots are most likely trying to hack into your blog right now. Whether they can do this successfully depends on how challenging you will make things for hackers to continue trying until they can either work out a way to get access, or give up and go look for a less protected target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Scan Image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test will yield various results and information about your website …
(website security check results. Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can access all of this information, hackers can too.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
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 in your site can be valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable security weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress 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 blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This site had literally nothing to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of this after being contacted by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place inside the site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to drive visitors to the site and hijack their Paypal account details.
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
Matt’s experience shows that 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 …
Plugins
The Blog Defender security product includes 3 plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and leading cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. Email), perform complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to new domains or server locations), search and replace text strings in your database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” provides your website or blog with security …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
The “WordPress Security” plugin provides a range of vital file and site security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” allows you to scan your site to see whether anything unusual has been tampered with, and repair problems …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Step-By-Step Training Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes training videos and printable guides that will teach you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from malicious users …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite install like any WP plugin. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your admin section and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a practical and useful training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free WordPress plugins you should use to get the job done.
Additional benefits include the following:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If your site sells digital products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Search Engines – When a site has been hacked, you should expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, site could get closed by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. Additionally, your personal contacts could end up being spammed, your customer list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender offers a number of features to WordPress users.
Blog Defender provides fixes for all of the following issues:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress 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
- File Monitoring
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process for securing your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image source: Blog Defender)
User Feedback
Here are a couple of the testimonials and comments plugin customers have written about Blog Defender:
”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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“Sure wish I’d had this before I lost over a dozen blogs just recently!” Kathe Lucas – www.wackycentral.com
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, since Blog Defender was first released, no Blog Defender-protected websites or blogs were hacked.
Matt Garrett also states on his site …
“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 knowledge and technologies that developers can get their hands on. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’t cost you 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, 30 day, full refund guarantee.
Product 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.. Price = $47.00.
Please Note: Pricing details of the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price shown above was correct at the time this article was published. This may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing information:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Install These Plugins
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 web security.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WP core files, plugins and WP themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to malicious by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you understand what your security responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your website is attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major WordPress security holes without costly solutions.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress
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