The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and the situation is getting worse.
You can safely assume that if you haven’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 reported that over 162,000 WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website or blog offers little to no value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites provide an opportunity to profit or benefit at your expense.
If someone can discover a way to compromise the control of your site, your site can then be employed as a “bot” to attack more valued web sites.
The truth is that software-driven bots are very likely looking for exploits and trying to hack into your website as you are reading this right now. Whether they will be successful will depend on how hard you have made things for hackers and botnets to continue trying until they work out a way to break in, or give up and decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(WP Security Check Image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check will return various results and details about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – WP security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you are able to see all of this information about your WordPress website, then hackers can too.
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Being able to see which version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories on your server can all be potentially useful information to hackers, as this informs them about exploitable security weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their files.
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 malicious users and bots.
Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress Blogs
Product Description
The product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended. This site had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside the site, as well as the addition of several malicious files designed to lure unsuspecting visitors to the site and steal their Paypal account information.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
This example provides the valuable lesson that all websites have value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security weaknesses in your WordPress installation are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
Blog Defender comes with three plugins:
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, external servers and cloud-based backup solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. FTP), schedule complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to new domains or server locations), search and replace text strings in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
The plugin performs a range of essential site protection functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Plugin #3 scans WordPress sites to detect whether anything in your files has been changed, and repair problems …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your content without offering anything of value in return).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender product suite also includes several video training guides plus written guides that will teach you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from malicious users …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure
The Blog Defender plugins are quite easy to install. Simply upload them to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a DIY step-by-step training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which WordPress plugins you can use for free to get things done without paying for extra costs.
Additional benefits include:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protect Your Info Products From Theft – If your site sells information products (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a site gets hacked, you can 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. In the meantime, your, site can be suspended by your host, or even blacklisted in search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender was designed to locks down your site and keeps your business safe and secure 24/7.
The product covers the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WP 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
- Monitoring Files
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process to help secure your site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
User Feedback
Below are some of the testimonials customers have published about the Blog Defender product:
“You are literally walked through the process!” Nikki Stephens, www.nikkistephens.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 Matt Garrett’s site, no Blog Defender-secured websites have been hacked since Blog Defender’s original release.
Matt 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 escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and technologies that developers can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, is quite inexpensive 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 Price
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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: Price details for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the price at the time this article was published. This may or may not be the actual price set by the product developer when you visit the product 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 Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use These Plugins
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your web sites is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, plugins and WordPress themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies like the one Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what your security responsibilities are as the website owner, 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 which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress site easier.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress Websites & Blogs
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