The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and things are only going to get worse.
You can safely 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 reported that over 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image: 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)
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.
Every web site with a vulnerability can be seen as a potential opportunity to hackers. No website Business sites, personal blogs, government websites … even web sites owned by online security experts can and have been targeted.
If a malicious user can discover a vulnerability that allows them to access and control your website or blog, that web site can then be employed to target more highly-valued websites.
The reality is that hackers are probably trying to break into your blog right now. Whether they can hack in successfully depends on how difficult or easy you will make it for hackers or botnets to continue persisting until they work out a way to get in, or give up and go look for a less secure target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Scan Screenshot: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will return a number of results and information about your site …
(WordPress security scan results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can see all of this information, so can hackers.
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
The ability 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 in your site are all potentially valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about any exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender WordPress Security Product Suite
Product Description
Blog Defender 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 blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This particular blog had literally no value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being suspended by his host and noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place inside his site, as well as the addition of several phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience demonstrates that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for security holes …
And let’s you easily fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite of products comes with 3 WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), automate complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides a range of website security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 lets you scan WordPress sites to see whether any code in your files has been modified, and repair any problems it uncovers …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious URLs 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, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes a number of step-by-step training in video format plus PDF/DOC guides that teach you exactly how to protect your website from hackers and bots …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Plugin 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 Easy To Install And Implement
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite are very easy to install. Just upload a zip file containing the plugins to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is 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 things up, and even which free WordPress plugins you should use to get things done inexpensively.
Additional plugin benefits include:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Helps Avoid Intellectual Property Theft – If your site sells information products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a site is hacked, expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. As a result, your, blog can be closed by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. Additionally, your personal contacts can be spammed, your customer list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Features
Blog Defender hide your WordPress website from hackers and malicious botnets.
The product addresses the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- 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
- Monitoring Files
- Track Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process to help protect your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Source: BlogDefender site)
User Feedback
Here are a few of the testimonials customers have written about Blog Defender:
”This is a seriously good product!” Simon Hodgkinson, www.hodgkinsonpublishing.com
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”Since working with blogs, I… like many others, have been concerned about how to handle the constant threat of blog attacks. After having a look at Blog Defender you can’t help but become most aware of the vulnerable areas all bloggers need to protect. Blog Defender is viable WordPress blog security prevention system that offers video instruction along with 3 software plugins that are free to download. The instruction shows the optimum settings on how to use the free plugins that will allow you top level force against blog hacker attacks.” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Plugin Tips
According to the product’s site, no Blog Defender-protected websites were hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
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.”
The war on hackers is an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers presently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, is quite inexpensive 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 no-risk, 30 day, complete refund guarantee.
Software 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.
Please Note: Pricing for Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current price at the time this article was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product developer when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, WordPress plugins and WP themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting a security policy like the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what’s going on in your site and where the security holes are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your site is attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress site easier.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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