The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and the situation is getting worse.
You can safely assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that over 162,000 WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Image 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 sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website or blog has no significant value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites are valuable to a malicious user.
If someone can discover a vulnerability, your website or blog can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target other valuable web sites.
The reality is that software-driven bots are very likely trying to hack into your website or blog right now. Whether they will be successful depends on how challenging you will make it for them to keep persisting until they discover a way to get in, or give up and decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Screenshot image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check returns various results and details about your website setup …
(Hackertarget – website security check results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can freely access all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Being able to see what 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 in your site can be potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about exploitable security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and make your site invisible to malicious attackers and botnets.
Blog Defender
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 developer of BlogDefender began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This blog was fairly new and so had literally nothing to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within his server, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting victims to the site and steal their financial details.
(Product image source: BlogDefender website)
This simple example should be enough to convince you that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for security weaknesses …
And let’s you easily fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
The first plugin in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
This plugin lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and well-known cloud-based storage solutions using different backup methods, perform full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text string replacements in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
The “WP Security” plugin provides a range of essential website protection functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” lets you scan your content and files to detect whether any of your files have been changed, and repair the problem …
(Source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious content 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 offering anything of benefit in return).
Video Tutorials
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes a number of step-by-step video tutorials plus printable guides that will teach you exactly how to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Implement
The Blog Defender plugins are really easy to install. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugins to your Plugin folder via your WordPress administrator account and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow DIY step-by-step training product that will take you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which plugins you can use for free to get things done inexpensively.
Additional benefits include:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Prevent Your Info Products From Being Freely Distributed – If you sell digital products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Search Engines – When a website has been hacked, expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. During this time, your, sites could be closed by your webhost, or even deindexed in search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides a number of great features to site owners.
Blog Defender helps you fix all of the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress 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
- File Monitoring
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process for securing your web site, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and WP plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
User Feedback
Below are a few of the testimonials and comments that users have written about Blog Defender:
”This is a seriously good product!” Simon Hodgkinson, www.hodgkinsonpublishing.com
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”Since working with blogs, I… like many others, have been concerned about how to handle the constant threat of blog attacks. After having a look at Blog Defender you can’t help but become most aware of the vulnerable areas all bloggers need to protect. Blog Defender is viable WordPress blog security prevention system that offers video instruction along with 3 software plugins that are free to download. The instruction shows the optimum settings on how to use the free plugins that will allow you top level force against blog hacker attacks.” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, no Blog Defender-protected websites were hacked since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012.
Matt also states on his site …
“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 knowledge and tools 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 you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than many premium 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, complete money-back guarantee.
Product Pricing
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 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 article was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin 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 current pricing here:
Additional Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
What We Recommend
Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot ignore the importance of website security.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WP core files, plugins and themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies such as the one Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your website is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress installation easier.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Product Suite
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