The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and it’s getting worse.
You can safely assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s inevitable that at some point in time someone will attempt to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
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 attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your site has no value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites are valuable to a malicious user.
If someone can find a web software vulnerability, that site can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target more valued sites.
The harsh reality is that malicious bots are searching for security weaknesses and trying to break into your web site right now. Whether they will hack into your site or not, depends on how difficult you will make it for hackers to keep trying until they can either discover how to get access, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less secure 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 site through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Check Screenshot image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test returns a number of results and information about your site …
(Hackertarget – WP security scan results. Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can freely access all of this information, hackers can too.
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Being able 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 on your server can all be valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about potential security weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their sites.
Fortunately, there is a solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and protect against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite
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 BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This particular blog had practically nothing to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within his site, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files designed to lure unsuspecting victims to the site and steal their Paypal account information.
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
This example demonstrates that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security weaknesses in your website are …
And then shows you how to quickly fix these …
Plugins
The product suite includes 3 plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
This plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and leading cloud solutions using different backup methods (e.g. FTP), automate full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text strings in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides WordPress security …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
The “WP Security” plugin performs a range of vital site and file protection functions (see “Features” section below).
The third plugin allows you to scan your content and files to see if anything unusual has been found, and repair any problems detected …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 people benefit from your content without providing anything of benefit in return).
Blog Defender – Step-By-Step Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender product suite also includes training in video format plus written guides that show you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Product image source: BlogDefender website)
More info:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Really Easy To Install
The Blog Defender plugins are quite easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow step-by-step training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which WordPress plugins you can install for free to get the job done inexpensively.
Some additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If you are an info product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a website has been hacked, you should expect to go through a great deal of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, site could be closed by your webhost, or even blacklisted in search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal details and financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender hide your website from hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender provides fixes for the following areas:
- Hosting 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
- Monitoring Files
- Link Tracking
- Block Known Offenders
- Automate Core WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical process for securing your website, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky WP themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Source: BlogDefender.com)
User Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials that plugin customers 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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”Just one tip could have prevented my blogs getting hacked!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, since Blog Defender was first released in 2012, no Blog Defender-secured sites have been hacked.
Matt Garrett, the product developer 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 information and tools that developers can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t need 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.
Blog Defender 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, complete money-back guarantee.
Product 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: Current pricing for Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software is selling for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin author when you visit the website 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 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 web security.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like making sure that your WordPress software, WP plugins and themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting a security procedure such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your websites are hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major WordPress security holes without costly solutions.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Suite
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