The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation is getting 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 over 162,000 WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website or blog provides no value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, every website provides an opportunity to benefit at your expense.
If hackers can discover a way to control your website or blog, your website or blog can then be used as a “bot” in a planned cyberattack against more highly-valued sites.
The reality is that malicious bots are most likely trying to break into your web site right now. Whether they can achieve this depends on how hard or easy you can make it for hackers and bots to keep trying until they either can work out how to get in, or are forced to decide to 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 website through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Check Product image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and details about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – website security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you are able to freely access all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Being able 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 can all be potentially useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially where the owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress Websites & Blogs
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 the BlogDefender security suit began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This particular blog had literally no value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within the site, as well as the addition of several malicious files designed to drive visitors to the site and steal Paypal account information.
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
This simple example should be enough to illustrate the fact that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you web site for potential security weaknesses …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
The Blog Defender security product comes with 3 WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and leading cloud-based storage solutions using different backup methods, perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to new domains or server locations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Plugin #2 provides a range of vital file and site security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” allows you to scan your content and files to see if your source code has been modified, and repair the problem …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been inserted into your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your work without providing anything of value in return).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes training in video format plus PDF/DOC guides that teach you exactly how to protect your website from malicious attacks …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
More info:
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 web site:
Ready To Go To Work In No Time
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite are very easy to install. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a practical training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free plugins to install to get things done inexpensively.
Some additional plugin benefits include:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Theft – If you sell digital products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a site is hacked, you can expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. During this time, your, site can get suspended by your host, or even blocked by search engines. And if that is not 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.
Features
Blog Defender make your your WordPress website invisible to hackers and malicious bots.
Blog Defender helps you fix all of the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- File Monitoring
- Link Monitoring
- Block Known Offenders
- Automating WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process for securing your site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Feedback From Users
Below are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that plugin users have submitted regarding the Blog Defender product:
”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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”My business is built around the WordPress platform and I’m embarrassed to admin I’ve been slack in the security department. However, Matt’s training soon put that right! I followed each detailed video to the letter and discovered some incredible security tricks and plugins I’d never heard of before. Better still, all the plugins were free to download too! The end result? My WordPress membership site is now locked down tighter than Parkhurst at midnight and if anybody tries hacking it, I’ll be the first to know! thanks again Matt, I’m off to secure the rest of the blogs in my portfolio!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, since the release of Blog Defender, no Blog Defender-protected websites have been hacked.
Matt Garrett, 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.”
Cybersecurity is an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers can get their hands on. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than many 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, 100% 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 special offers. When we last checked, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the product seller when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here:
Additional Plugin Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
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 afford to ignore the importance of web security.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, plugins and WordPress themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security policies like the one Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if the security on your website is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your installation easier.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender Security Solution
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