The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and it’s getting 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 reported that over 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(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)
As reported 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.
You may think that your website has no value to hackers, but the reality is that every website has value to a malicious user.
If a hacker can discover a security vulnerability and gain control of your web site, the website can then be used as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against larger and more highly-valued web sites.
The truth is that malicious bots are trying to hack into your website or blog as you are reading this at this very moment. Whether they can do this successfully or not, will depend on how difficult or easy you have made it for hackers and bots to continue persisting until they work out how to break in, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Check Screenshot source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test returns a number of results and information about your website setup …
(Hackertarget – website security scan results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can freely access all of this information, hackers can too.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
The ability 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 are all useful information to hackers, as this can inform them about any exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother got hacked into. This blog had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being suspended by his host and observing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside his server, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files by whoever had broken into his site.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience shows that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you website for potential security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
Blog Defender comes with 3 WordPress plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. Email), perform full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text in your database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides your site with security …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” provides a range of essential file and site protection functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
The third plugin scans your website to detect whether any of your files have been altered, and fix problems …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been added to your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your hard work without offering anything of value in return).
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 and written documentation that will show you exactly how to protect your site from malicious users …
(Source: Blog Defender)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Below we have listed just a few 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 are very easy to install. Simply upload them to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow DIY 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 free WordPress plugins to use to get things done.
Some additional benefits include the following:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Secure Your Info Products – If you are an information product creator (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Closed By Your Web Host And Banned By Search Engines – When a website is hacked, you can expect to go through a serious amount of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, website or blog can get closed by your host, or even deindexed in search engines. And if this is not painful enough, your contacts could end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender was created to locks down your site and keeps your business safe and secure 24/7.
Blog Defender provides fixes for the following issues:
- Host Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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
- File Monitoring
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WP 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 quickly identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
User Feedback
Below are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that plugin users have provided for the Blog Defender product:
“You are literally walked through the process!” 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 the product’s website, no Blog Defender-secured websites were hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
Matt Garrett 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 perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers can currently harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than most premium security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
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% money-back 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.
Note: Current pricing for the Blog Defender software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was correct when this review was published. This may not be the actual price set by the product seller when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Download This Product
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 simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, WordPress plugins and themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting a security policy such as the one that 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 compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress site easier.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
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