The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and the situation is only going to get worse.
It’s probably safe to 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 162,000 WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Source: 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 WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website or blog offers little to no value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites have some value to a malicious user.
If someone can find a way to break in and gain control of your website, that website or blog can then be used to attack more valuable sites.
The truth is that hackers are very likely trying to break into your website or blog while you are reading this article right now. Whether they will get into your site will depend on how hard you will make things for hackers to keep persisting until they work out a way to break in, or decide to look for a less secure target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Website Security Check Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test will return a number of results and details about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – website security scan results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to access all of this information about your WordPress website, then so can hackers.
(Screenshot: 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 can be potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of the BlogDefender security suit began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by the hosting company. This site had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of this after being contacted by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within the site, as well as the addition of several phishing files designed to drive visitors to the site and hijack financial details.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
This simple example demonstrates that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security weaknesses in your web site are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 WordPress plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, external servers and well-known cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), schedule full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to new domains or server locations), do bulk text string replacements in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” performs a range of vital site protection functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” scans your files and content to see if anything in your files has been found, and fix problems …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been added to your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Training Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes several step-by-step videos plus PDF/DOC guides that will teach you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here we have listed 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:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product install like any WordPress plugin. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a step-by-step training product that will guide you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free plugins you should use to get things done without paying unnecessary costs.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Your Info Products From Being Stolen – If you are an information product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Banned By Your Host – When a site gets hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. As a result, your, websites could get suspended by your webhost, or even blocked in search engines. And if that 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.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides many great features to WordPress users.
Blog Defender helps you fix the following issues:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps for securing your web site, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
User Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials that plugin customers have provided for Blog Defender:
”This is a seriously good product!” Simon Hodgkinson, www.hodgkinsonpublishing.com
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”In the past month alone, I’ve had 3 niche blogs hacked, costing me hundreds of dollars in lost sales – all of which could have been avoided if I followed the steps in this training. I can tell you, there’s nothing worse than spending months building up a blog, adding posts every few days, and then finding it all gone in an instant. The great thing about these ‘over the shoulder’ videos is that you get to see exactly how to do everything, so it doesn’t matter if you’re technically challenged. Just copy what you see on the screen, and then relax knowing your blogs are safe. (Just one of the tips in the first video alone could probably have prevented my blogs getting hacked) I even noticed one or two tips in there that help with SEO too … so following these videos could even bring your blogs more traffic!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, no websites protected with the product were hacked since Blog Defender was originally released.
Matt 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 constant game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, doesn’t cost a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most 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, thirty day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product Cost
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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: The cost to purchase Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price shown above was current at the time this article was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price here:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
The Bottom Line
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your site is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, WP plugins and themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to attacks by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies like the one 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 to help prevent your sites being attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major WordPress security holes without investing in expensive solutions.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Product Suite
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