The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide 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.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 162,000 legitimate WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Could yours 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 web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a security vulnerability provides an opportunity to hackers. A vulnerable website not only provides newbie hackers opportunities to improve their skills and claim “bragging rights” from their peers, but it can also acts as a platform for stealth attacks, distributing malware and participating in information theft.
If a malicious user can exploit a security vulnerability, your website or blog can then be used to attack other valuable websites.
The truth is that software-driven bots are probably trying to break into your site as you are reading this article right now. Whether they can do this successfully depends on how challenging you can make things for hackers or bots to continue trying until they either can discover a way to get access, or decide to look for a more vulnerable 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 …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Check Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test will display a number of results and details about your site setup …
(WP security scan results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can access all of this information about your WordPress website, so can hackers.
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
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 in your site can all be potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially where site owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to malicious attackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress
Product Description
The product is a package 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 developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This particular site was new and so had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place inside the server, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to drive unsuspecting visitors to the site and hijack Paypal account information.
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Matt’s experience shows that that every website has some value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security weaknesses in your website are …
And let’s you fix these quickly …
Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #1 lets you do secure backups to your server, external servers and well-known cloud storage solutions using different backup methods (including FTP and email backups), schedule complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your 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.
Plugin #2 provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
The plugin provides a range of vital site and file protection functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan your site to see whether code in your files has been modified, and fix the problem …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” 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 content without providing anything of value in return).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender product suite also includes seven training modules in video format and printable documentation that will teach you exactly what to do to protect your website from hackers …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
The plugins included with Blog Defender install like every WP plugin. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a practical 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 free plugins you should install to get the job done inexpensively.
Additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Protect your site from hackers, spammers, botnets, 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 Being Stolen – If your site sells an info product (e.g. downloadable e-books, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Host – When a website gets hacked, you should expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, blog could be suspended by your host, or even blocked in search engines. Additionally, your contacts could end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details can be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender offers a number of great features to website owners.
The product provides fixes for all of the following areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- WordPress 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
- Monitor Files
- Link Tracking
- Block Known Offenders
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps to help secure your site, addressing hosting security, using tools to identify risky WP themes and WordPress plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Source: Blog Defender)
User Feedback
Here are just a few of the testimonials and feedback that users have published about Blog Defender:
”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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“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 sites were hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
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 is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and technologies that developers can currently get their hands on. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t need 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 Plugin 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, thirty day, 100% refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: The cost of purchasing Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price above was correct when this review was published. This may not be the actual price charged by the product developer when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details here:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
What We Recommend
No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot ignore the importance of website security.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like making sure that your WP software, WP plugins and WordPress themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your sites are attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress site easier.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender
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