The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, 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 160,000+ WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Image 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 flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website with a security vulnerability provides an opportunity to hackers. A compromised site not only provides hackers opportunities to improve their hacking skills and win “respect” among their peers, but it can also acts as a resource for launching distributed denial of service attacks, distributing malware and defrauding visitors through information theft.
If hackers can exploit a software weakness in your security that allows them to compromise the control of your site, the web site can then be used as part of a larger network of “bots” to target more valuable web sites.
The reality is that hackers are very likely looking for security weaknesses and trying to hack into your website right now. Whether they can successfully get into your site will depend on how difficult you have made things for hackers or botnets to continue trying until they work out how to get in, or are forced to give up and decide to look for an easier 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 Check Screenshot: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test returns a number of results and information about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – website security check results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can see all of this information about your website, then so can hackers.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
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 can all be potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about potential holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and bots.
Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress Blogs
Product Description
The product 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 BlogDefender began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by the hosting company. This site was almost brand new and had practically no value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within the server, as well as the addition of several malicious files designed to lure visitors to the site and steal their financial details.
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
This example illustrates the fact that every website has some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for security holes …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
Plugins
The Blog Defender security product comes with three plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
This plugin lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and leading cloud backup solutions using different backup methods, perform complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text string replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
This plugin performs a range of essential site and file security functions (see “Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan your plugins, themes and WP core files to detect whether anything has been tampered with, and fix any problems it uncovers …
(Product image source: BlogDefender website)
Pro 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 content without providing any reciprocal value in return).
Blog Defender – Step-By-Step Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes 7 video training modules plus written guides that show you exactly how to protect your site from malicious attacks …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages 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 quite easy to install. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WP administrator area and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as a step-by-step training product that will take you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which plugins you can use for free to get the job done without paying additional costs.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Secure Your Info Products – If you’re a digital product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a website gets hacked, you should expect to go through a serious amount of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, sites could get suspended by your webhost, or even blacklisted in search engines. And if that is not painful enough, your personal contacts could be spammed, your customer list and financial details could be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Features
Blog Defender make your your WordPress website invisible to hackers and malicious bots.
The product provides fixes for the following security areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress 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
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps to help secure your website, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky WordPress themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Image source: BlogDefender.com)
Feedback From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback plugin customers have published about Blog Defender:
”Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re too small or not important enough to be hacked! I’ve found out that I’ve had bots in the backend of my sites, making alterations and changing things around, so there’s no telling what damage they’ve caused. I’ve had my main blog for over 3 years now, and the thought of losing all the hard work I’ve put into it is just devastating, not to mention costly! I have a shared hosting plan, so of course once they can get into one site, they can also access the others. Luckily, I now have the procedures detailed within Blog Defender in place so that I can prevent the majority of this ever happening again. Once you’ve secured one site it gets a lot quicker to secure all subsequent sites. With Blog Defender, you get easy-to-follow videos, along with a detailed checklist that you can downloadf. You are literally walked through the process of securing your blog against hackers, which has given me real peace of mind. This is a growing issue that all website owners are facing; so it isn’t going to go away. Prevention is better than cure, particularly as some of the nastier hacks around can literally ruin your business. So do yourself a favour – get your sites protected now, before it’s too late.” Nikki Stephens, www.nikkistephens.com
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”I discovered some incredible security tricks!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012, no websites or blogs using Blog Defender were hacked.
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.”
The war on hackers is an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers can currently access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, won’t cost a fortune and it’s as good if not better than many web security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Blog Defender 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, 100% money-back 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: The price of Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price when this content was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin developer when you visit the product 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 Plugin Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your sites is something you cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress core files, WP plugins and WordPress themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to attacks by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your website is attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major security risks without paying for costly solutions.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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