The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and it’s only going to get worse.
You can safely assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot 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)
As described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every site with a vulnerability has some degree of potential value to hackers. A compromised website or blog provides hackers with a valuable resource to launch DDoS attacks, spread malware and use your website to defraud online users.
If a hacker can exploit a way to control your blog, your site can then be used to target more highly-valued web sites.
The reality is that hackers are trying to hack into your site right now. Whether they can do this successfully depends on how difficult or easy you can make things for hackers and botnets to keep trying until they find a way to get access, or give up and decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information About Your 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 scan …
(Website Security Scan Screenshot source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check returns various results and details about your WordPress setup …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security scan results. Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to access all of this information about your website, then hackers can too.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
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 are all useful information to hackers, as this informs them about potentially exploitable security weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and protect against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress Web Sites
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This particular site was quite new and so had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being informed by his host and observing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside the site, as well as the addition of several malicious files designed to drive unsuspecting victims to the site and steal their Paypal account information.
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience shows that that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for potential security weaknesses …
And then shows you how to quickly fix these …
WP Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 plugins:
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
This plugin lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, external servers and well-known cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), automate full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text strings in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 provides WordPress security …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
This plugin provides a range of essential site and file security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” allows you to scan your files and content to detect whether any of your files have been tampered with, and fix any problems it finds …
(Source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 content without offering you any reciprocal benefit or value in return).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes 7 training modules in video format and training guides that will teach you exactly what to do to protect your website from hackers …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
For more details go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the many 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 Implement
The Blog Defender plugins install just like any plugin. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your administrator area and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a practical and useful DIY training product that will take you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which WordPress plugins you can install for free to get the job done.
Some additional benefits of this plugin include:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products – If you are an information product creator (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blacklisted By Search Engines – When a site gets hacked, you can expect to go through a serious amount of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, account could be suspended by your webhost, or even deindexed in search engines. And if this is not painful enough, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender make your your website invisible to hackers and botnets.
The product addresses the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- File Monitoring
- Tracking Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process for securing your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image: BlogDefender.com)
User Feedback
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback plugin users have provided for the Blog Defender product suite:
”This is a seriously good product!” Simon Hodgkinson, www.hodgkinsonpublishing.com
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”In the past month alone, I’ve had 3 niche blogs hacked, costing me hundreds of dollars in lost sales – all of which could have been avoided if I followed the steps in this training. I can tell you, there’s nothing worse than spending months building up a blog, adding posts every few days, and then finding it all gone in an instant. The great thing about these ‘over the shoulder’ videos is that you get to see exactly how to do everything, so it doesn’t matter if you’re technically challenged. Just copy what you see on the screen, and then relax knowing your blogs are safe. (Just one of the tips in the first video alone could probably have prevented my blogs getting hacked) I even noticed one or two tips in there that help with SEO too … so following these videos could even bring your blogs more traffic!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Useful Tips
According to the product’s site, no Blog Defender-secured sites were hacked since Blog Defender’s first release.
Matt 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 ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools that developers can currently access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require 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.
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 risk-free, 30 day, full money-back guarantee.
Software 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.
Note: Pricing details of the Blog Defender product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current pricing when this review was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product developer when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Our Recommendation
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your website or blog is something you cannot ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, plugins and WordPress themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting security procedures such as the one that 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 site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major security risks without paying a lot of money.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Suite
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