The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and this is only going to get worse.
You can safely assume that if you haven’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 reported that 160,000+ WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Screenshot source: 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)
According to security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website has no significant value to hackers, but the reality is that every website is valuable to a malicious user.
If a malicious user can hack into and gain any form of control of your website or blog, your website or blog can then be used to attack larger and more valuable sites.
The truth is that brute-force software bots are most likely trying to break into your website or blog as you are reading this page right now. Whether they will get into your site or not, depends on how hard you will make it for hackers to keep trying until they can discover a way to get access, or give up and decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Scan Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan will yield a number of results and details about your WordPress installation …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security check results. Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you are able to see all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
The ability to see which 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 vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and help to protect it against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress Sites
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 creator of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This site was quite new and so had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside the site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience illustrates the fact that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to easily fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
Blog Defender comes with three plugins for WordPress:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
This plugin lets you do automated backups to your server, third-party servers and leading cloud-based storage solutions using different backup methods, automate complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do mass text string replacements in databases, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
The second plugin provides WordPress security …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
The “WP Security” plugin performs a range of vital site and file protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan your plugins, WP themes and WP core files to see if anything unusual in your files or source code has been altered, and fix any problems it uncovers …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
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 people benefit from your work without reciprocating the favor).
Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender security suite also includes a number of step-by-step training videos and training documentation that will show you exactly how to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Be Up And Running In No Time
The plugins install like any WP plugin. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a practical DIY 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 WordPress plugins you can use for free to get the job done inexpensively.
Some additional benefits include the following:
- Protect your site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Helps Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you are an information product creator (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a website gets hacked, you should expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. As a result, your, sites can get suspended by your webhost, or even blocked in search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender hide your website or blog from hackers and malicious botnets.
Blog Defender provides fixes for all of the following security areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- File Monitoring
- Monitoring Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help secure your website, addressing hosting security, using tools to identify risky WP themes and plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Source: Blog Defender)
Feedback From Users
Below are some of the testimonials and comments that plugin users have written about the Blog Defender solution:
”Great way to secure your blog!” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.com
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”Since working with blogs, I… like many others, have been concerned about how to handle the constant threat of blog attacks. After having a look at Blog Defender you can’t help but become most aware of the vulnerable areas all bloggers need to protect. Blog Defender is viable WordPress blog security prevention system that offers video instruction along with 3 software plugins that are free to download. The instruction shows the optimum settings on how to use the free plugins that will allow you top level force against blog hacker attacks.” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012, no websites using Blog Defender were hacked.
Matt Garrett, the product developer 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 escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers presently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, won’t cost you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most 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, 30 day, full 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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: Pricing details of Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software sells for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use These Plugins
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot ignore the importance of web security.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress core files, plugins and WP themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you understand what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities 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 installation easier.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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