The sheer number 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 only a matter of time before someone attempts to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that over 160,000+ legitimate WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot: 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 web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website or blog is of little value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, every website provides an opportunity to gain some advantage at your expense.
If a hacker can find a way to take over your web site, that blog can then be employed to attack more valuable web sites.
The reality is that hackers are most likely scouring for security weaknesses and trying to break into your site while you are reading this at this very moment. Whether they can get in successfully will depend on how hard or easy you can make things for hackers and botnets to continue persisting until they work out how to break in, or are forced to decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Check Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan will return various results and information about your site …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security check results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to see all of this information, then so can hackers.
(Source: Blog Defender)
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 can be potentially valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about any exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, 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 blog he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended by the webhost. This particular blog had literally nothing to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within his server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
This example provides the valuable lesson that all websites have value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for potential security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – WordPress Plugins
Blog Defender comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
The plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud backup solutions using a number of backup methods, schedule complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text strings in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides WordPress security …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
The “WordPress Security” plugin provides a range of vital site and file protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 scans WordPress sites to detect if your source code has been modified, and repair the problem …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
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 hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Step-By-Step Training Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender security suite also includes several video tutorials plus written guides that teach you exactly what you need to do to protect your website from malicious users …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
More info:
Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Installation Is Easy & Simple
The plugins included with Blog Defender are quite easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugin folder via your WP admin user section and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a practical and useful DIY 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 WordPress plugins you can use for free to get the job done without paying additional costs.
Some additional benefits of this plugin include the following:
- Secure your website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If you sell an information product (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Web Host And 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. During this time, your, web presence can be suspended by your webhost, or even deindexed in search engines. Additionally, your contacts could end up being spammed, your customer list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender offers many great features to WordPress users.
The product helps you fix all of the following security areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- Monitor Files
- Link Monitoring
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process for securing your site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
User Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials customers have submitted regarding 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
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”I sure wish I’d had this before I lost over a dozen blogs just recently. Okay, it was my fault for not securing things more, BUT… I didn’t have a handy, current reference like this to turn to for quick help either.;)” Kathe Lucas – www.wackycentral.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, since Blog Defender was released back in 2012, no websites using Blog Defender have been hacked.
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.”
The war on hackers is an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers can currently get their hands on. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, won’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.
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, 30 day, full money-back 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 cost to purchase this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the software is selling for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Download This Product
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of securing your web sites.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, plugins and WP themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you learn what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if the security on your site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your site easier.
For full details, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender
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