The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation is getting 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 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Image source: 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 flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website or blog with a security vulnerability offers some value to hackers. A compromised web site offers hackers with a platform to launch DDoS attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft.
If someone can exploit a vulnerability, the web site can then be used as a “bot” to attack larger and more valued web sites.
The truth is that software-driven bots are probably trying to hack into your site at this very moment. Whether they will be successful will depend on how hard you can make things for hackers to continue persisting until they can either discover a way to get access, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less secure target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Scan Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the test will yield a number of results and details about your WordPress installation …
(website security scan results. Screenshot source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can access all of this information about your site, then so can hackers.
(Product image source: BlogDefender website)
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 in your site are all potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about potentially exploitable security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and protect against other malicious threats.
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 developer of BlogDefender began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This blog was not being used and had practically no value to offer, yet it still was hacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being informed by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within his site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to lure unsuspecting visitors to the site and hijack their financial information.
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
This simple example shows that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security weaknesses in your web site are …
And let’s you quickly and easily fix these …
WordPress Plugins
Blog Defender includes three plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do automated backups to your server, external servers and leading cloud-based solutions using a number of backup methods (including FTP and email backups), automate complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
The “WordPress Security” plugin performs a range of site protection functions (see “Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan your WP site to detect whether anything unusual in your source code has been altered, and repair problems …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your hard work without offering anything in return).
Blog Defender – Tutorials Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender WordPress security product suite also includes step-by-step training in video format plus training guides that will show you exactly how to protect your website from malicious users …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
More info:
Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Ready To Use In Minutes
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite are really easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin user section and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself training product that will take you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free WordPress plugins to install to get things done.
Some additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If you’re an info product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a website gets hacked, expect to go through a great deal of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. During this time, your, web presence could be suspended by your webhost, or even blacklisted by search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal details and financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides many features to website owners.
Blog Defender provides fixes for all of the following security areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WP Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps for securing your web site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials and feedback that 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
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, no Blog Defender-protected sites 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.”
Cybersecurity is is a constant game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers currently can access. 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 many web 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 no-risk, thirty day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
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 depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price at the time this review was published. This may not be the actual price set by the software seller 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 the current pricing:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use These Plugins
No matter what type 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 ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple 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 procedures like the one 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 hacked or compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your site easier.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Product Suite
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