The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and the situation is only going to get worse.
You can safely 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 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image source: Blog Defender)
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)
According to security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every web site with a security vulnerability presents an opportunity to hackers. 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 web security. Business websites, personal blogs, government websites … even sites owned by online security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If a malicious user can discover a flaw in the security setup, that website can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against larger and more valuable sites.
The truth is that brute-force software bots are looking for security exploits and trying to break into your website or blog as you are reading these very words. Whether they will hack into your site successfully will depend on how hard or easy you have made things for hackers to keep persisting until they find a way to get in, or decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Website Security Scan Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and details about your site …
(website security check results. Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can freely access all of this information about your site, so can hackers.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
Being able to see which 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 all be useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
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 the BlogDefender security suit began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended by the webhost. This particular site was new and had literally nothing to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred inside the site, as well as the addition of several malicious files designed to lure unsuspecting visitors to the site and hijack Paypal account information.
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Matt’s experience shows that that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for potential security holes …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly and easily …
Plugins
Blog Defender comes with 3 plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do secure backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), schedule full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to different domains or server locations), do mass text string replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
The plugin provides a range of vital website protection functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan your content and files to detect if any of your files have been tampered with, and repair problems …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been inserted into your site, 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 – Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes step-by-step videos plus written guides that show you exactly what to do to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Be Up And Running In Very Little Time
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite install just like any plugin. Just upload them to your Plugin folder via your administrator login and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself 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 use for free to get the job done inexpensively.
Additional benefits include:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products From Theft – If you’re a digital product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a website is hacked, expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. As a result, your, sites could get suspended by your webhost, or even blacklisted in search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Features
Blog Defender make your your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets.
The product helps you fix the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- WP 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 Blocking
- 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 provides a logical process to help secure your your WordPress installation, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
User Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that plugin users have written 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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”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’s site, no websites protected with the product have been hacked since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012.
Matt Garrett 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 perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers presently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’t cost you 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 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, thirty day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product Price
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.
Note: The cost of purchasing the Blog Defender plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current price at the time this review was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin developer when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details here:
Additional Plugin Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Install The Plugins
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 securing your website.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, WP plugins and WP themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies such as the one Blog Defender provides, will help you understand 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 task of securing your site easier.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress Web Sites
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