The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and things are only going to get worse.
It’s safe to 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 160,000+ legitimate WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot image: 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 attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website provides no value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, every website is an opportunity to gain some advantage at your expense.
If a malicious user can discover a software vulnerability in your security, that website can then be used as a “bot” to attack other highly-valued websites.
The reality is that hackers are most likely trying to break into your blog right now. Whether they can get in successfully depends on how difficult you will make it for hackers to keep trying until they work out how to break in, or decide to look for an easier 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 …
(WordPress Security Scan Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and details about your site …
(website security scan results. Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you are able to freely access all of this information about your website, hackers can too.
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
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 on your server can be potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about potentially exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to malicious attackers and bots.
Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress Websites & Blogs
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended by its webhost. This blog had practically nothing to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being contacted by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within his site, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to drive unsuspecting victims to the site and steal their Paypal account details.
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
This example is evidence that every website has value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security holes in your web site are …
And let’s you easily fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite includes 3 plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
This plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, external servers and cloud solutions using different backup methods (e.g. Email), automate full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to new domains or server locations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides WordPress security …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
This plugin provides a range of website protection functions (see “Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 lets you scan your WordPress website to detect whether your source code has been tampered with, and fix any problems it uncovers …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” 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 offering anything in return).
Video Training
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes 7 step-by-step video tutorial modules and downloadable documentation that will teach you exactly how to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Set Up
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite install just like any other WP plugin. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that walks you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free WordPress plugins to install to get things done.
Some additional benefits of this plugin include the following:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Helps Avoid Intellectual Property Theft – If you’re an information product creator (e.g. downloadable e-books, video training, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Search Engines – When a website gets hacked, 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. As a result, your, account could be suspended by your webhost, or even blocked in search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal and financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender offers many great features to site owners.
The product addresses the following areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- Monitor Files
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps to help secure your website, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image: Blog Defender)
Feedback From Plugin Users
Below are just some testimonials that plugin customers have submitted for Blog Defender:
”I’ve had to go through the inconvenience of a hacked blog before and let me tell you it’s not nice. With online security becoming an increasing problem, especially with WordPress, this is a great way to secure your blog. I’ll be following Matt’s training and securing all my blogs…Great job.” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.com
***
”Just one tip could have prevented my blogs getting hacked!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Plugin Tips
According to the product’s site, since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012, no Blog Defender-secured websites were hacked.
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.”
Cybersecurity is is a constant game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools that developers can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t require 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 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 Cost
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.. Price = $47.00.
Please Note: The cost to purchase Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing above was current when this content was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software developer when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Plugin Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Buy This Product
Regardless of the kind 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 very secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, plugins and WordPress themes up-to-date, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security policies such as the one Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your website easier.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress
***
***