The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and the situation is getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’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 over 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image 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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website or blog with a security vulnerability can can provide an opportunity to hackers. An unsecured website or blog offers malicious users with a resource to launch DDoS attacks, spread malware and use your site to steal information from online users.
If someone can hack into and gain complete control of your website, the site can then be used to target more highly-valued websites.
The reality is that brute-force software bots are probably scouring for vulnerabilities and trying to break into your website or blog as you are reading this page. Whether they can get into your site successfully or not, will depend on how difficult or easy you will make things for hackers and botnets to continue trying until they can either work out how to break in, or decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Scan Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan returns various results and details about your website setup …
(WordPress security scan results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you are able to see all of this information, hackers can too.
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
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 useful information to hackers, as this informs them about potentially exploitable vulnerabilities, especially where site owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This blog had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it still was 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 site, as well as the addition of several phishing files by whoever had broken into his site.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
This example shows that that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security holes in your WordPress installation are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite includes three plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do secure backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to different domains or server locations), do mass text string replacements in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Plugin #2 provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
The plugin performs a range of vital site protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan WordPress sites to see if your source code has been altered, and repair the problem …
(Image 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 work without providing any benefit in return).
Video Tutorials
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes step-by-step training in video format plus downloadable documentation that will show you exactly how to protect your site from hackers …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Very Easy To Install
The plugins are very easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugin folder via your WP 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 exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free plugins to install to get the job done without incurring additional or unnecessary costs.
Additional benefits of this plugin include the following:
- Secure your site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Secure Your Info Products – If you’re an info product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Web Host And Delisted By Search Engines – When a website gets hacked, you should expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. During this time, your, web presence can get closed by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details or financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender offers many great features to WP users.
Blog Defender helps you fix the following areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- Monitor Files
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps to help protect your website, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials From Customers
Here are just a few of the testimonials and comments that users have submitted for the Blog Defender security products:
”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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”My business is built around the WordPress platform and I’m embarrassed to admin I’ve been slack in the security department. However, Matt’s training soon put that right! I followed each detailed video to the letter and discovered some incredible security tricks and plugins I’d never heard of before. Better still, all the plugins were free to download too! The end result? My WordPress membership site is now locked down tighter than Parkhurst at midnight and if anybody tries hacking it, I’ll be the first to know! thanks again Matt, I’m off to secure the rest of the blogs in my portfolio!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, since the release of Blog Defender, no Blog Defender-protected websites have been hacked.
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.”
The war on hackers is is a constant game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, won’t cost you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most 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, 30 day, 100% refund guarantee.
Plugin 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: The price of Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the pricing at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the product seller when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, 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, securing your website is something you cannot ignore.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, WordPress plugins and WP themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies like the one that 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 to help prevent your sites being compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major security risks without paying for costly solutions.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender WordPress Security Solution
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