The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and this is only going to get worse.
It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone attempts to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that over 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Image: 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)
As described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website or blog has nothing to offer to hackers, but the reality is that all websites have value to a malicious user.
If a hacker can find a vulnerability in your setup, your blog can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against larger and more valued websites.
The reality is that hackers are most likely trying to break into your website right now. Whether they can do this successfully or not, depends on how hard you have made things for them to continue persisting until they can work out a way 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?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(WordPress Security Scan Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test will yield various results and details about your website setup …
(WP security check results. Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can freely access all of this information about your WordPress website, so can hackers.
(Product image source: 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 can all be useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about exploitable security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to malicious users and bots.
Blog Defender
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by the hosting company. This particular site was quite new and had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed by his host and observing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside his server, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into his site.
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience is evidence that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your WordPress installation are …
And then shows you how to easily fix these …
Plugins
The Blog Defender security product includes 3 WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
The plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and cloud-based storage solutions using different backup methods, automate complete 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 malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides your web site with security …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
The plugin performs a range of site protection functions (see “Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan your plugins, themes, core files and content to see if any of your files have been changed, and repair any problems found …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious scripts 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 – Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes 7 video training modules and PDF/DOC documentation that will teach you exactly how to protect your site from hackers …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here we have listed 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:
Quick And Easy To Install And Use
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite are really easy to install. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP admin area and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a DIY step-by-step training product that guides you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free plugins you should install to get things done.
Some additional benefits of using this plugin include:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Theft – If your site sells information products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Your Host – When a site 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, website or blog could get closed by your webhost, or even blocked by search engines. And if this isn’t enough to have to deal with, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Features
Blog Defender offers a number of great features to web site owners.
The product addresses the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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
- Monitoring Files
- Link Monitoring
- Block Known Offenders
- Automate WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process for securing your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky WordPress themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials plugin users have written about Blog Defender:
”Great way to secure your blog!” 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 the plugin’s site, since Blog Defender was first released, no Blog Defender-secured sites were 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.”
The war on hackers is an ever-escalating arms race 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 creates an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, doesn’t cost a fortune and it’s as good if not better than many web security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Product 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, 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.
Please Note: Pricing for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price above was current at the time this content was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product author when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, 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, securing your site is something you cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WP installation, WP plugins and WordPress themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security procedures such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what your responsibilities as a website owner 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 task of securing your WordPress website easier.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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