The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and it’s getting worse.
It’s probably safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 legitimate WordPress web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Image: BlogDefender site)
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 leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website with a vulnerability presents an opportunity to hackers. A compromised website presents hackers with a platform to launch DDoS attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft.
If hackers can exploit a weakness in your security, the website can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against more valuable websites.
The truth is that software-driven bots are looking for exploits and trying to hack into your blog as you are reading these very words. Whether they can get into your site successfully or not, will depend on how hard or easy you have made it for hackers to keep persisting until they discover a way to get access, or decide to look for a more vulnerable 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 site through their WordPress security check …
(WordPress Security Check Screenshot source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will return various results and information about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – website security check results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can freely access all of this information, hackers can too.
(Screenshot image: 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 valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about any security vulnerabilities, especially where the owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a way to 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 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 site he set up for his mother got hacked into. This blog was not being used and had practically no value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being contacted by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside his server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to drive visitors to the site and hijack their financial details.
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience shows that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for potential security weaknesses …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
WordPress Plugins
The product suite comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and leading cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods, schedule full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to new domains or server locations), do mass text string replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
The “WP Security” plugin performs a range of vital file and site security functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
The third plugin allows you to scan your content and files to see whether anything has been found, and repair any problems it finds …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” 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 work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Video Training
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender security suite also includes 7 step-by-step video tutorial modules plus PDF/DOC documentation that will teach you exactly how to protect your site from malicious users …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here are just some of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Quick And Easy To Install And Set Up
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product are very easy to install. Simply upload them to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a DIY 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 everything up, and even which plugins you can install for free to get things done inexpensively.
Additional benefits and advantages include:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protect Your Info Products – If you sell an info product (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a site is hacked, you can expect to go through a great deal of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. As a result, your, blog could get closed by your webhost, or even deindexed by search engines. Additionally, your personal contacts can end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details can be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender make your your WordPress website or blog invisible to hackers and bots.
The product provides fixes for the following areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- File Monitoring
- Tracking Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process for securing your web site, addressing hosting security, 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 website security process. Source: Blog Defender)
Feedback From Users
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback that plugin users have submitted regarding the Blog Defender plugin:
”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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”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 plugin’s website, since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012, no Blog Defender-secured websites or blogs have been hacked.
The product developer 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 technologies that developers currently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need 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.
Product 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, thirty day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software Pricing
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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: Current pricing for this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing when this content was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin seller when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing information:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, 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, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of web security.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like making sure that your WordPress installation, plugins and WP themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting a security policy like 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 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 complete details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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