The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and this is 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 began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Screenshot: 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)
According to leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website provides little to no value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites are valuable to a malicious user.
If someone can exploit a web software flaw and gain access and control of your website or blog, the site can then be employed to attack larger and more valuable web sites.
The truth is that hackers are very likely looking for security weaknesses and trying to break into your web site as you are reading this article at this very moment. Whether they will get in successfully depends on how difficult or easy you can make things for hackers or botnets to continue trying until they discover how to get in, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(WP Security Scan Source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will yield a number of results and information about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security scan results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you are able to freely access all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
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 can all be valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about potentially exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially where site owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution that will stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and protect against malicious attacks.
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 creator of the BlogDefender security suit began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended by the hosting company. This blog was not being used and so 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 noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred within his site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Source: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience should be enough to convince you that all websites have value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for potential security holes …
And then shows you how to quickly fix these …
Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite of products includes 3 plugins for WordPress:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
The plugin lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, external servers and leading cloud-based storage solutions using a number of backup methods, automate full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text strings in your WordPress database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides WordPress security …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
The “WordPress Security” plugin performs a range of vital site and file security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
The third plugin allows you to scan your plugins, themes, WordPress core files and content to detect if code in your files has been changed, and repair any problems it detects …
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts 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 reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Video Training
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes seven videos and written documentation that will teach you exactly how to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
For more details go 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:
Very Easy To Install
The Blog Defender plugins install like any regular plugin. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a practical and useful do-it-yourself training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which WordPress plugins you can install for free to get the job done without incurring additional or unnecessary costs.
Additional benefits include the following:
- Protect your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Helps Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you’re an info product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a site is hacked, expect to go through a whole lot of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. During this time, your, websites could get closed by your host, or even blocked by search engines. And if that isn’t enough to have to deal with, your personal contacts can end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details could be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides many unique features to WordPress users.
The product addresses the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress 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
- Track Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate Core WordPress 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 identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Image source: BlogDefender website)
Testimonials From Plugin Customers
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback customers have published about the Blog Defender product:
”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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”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 Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012, no Blog Defender-protected websites have been 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 information and tools developers presently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, won’t cost a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most premium 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 risk-free, 30 day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin 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.. Price = $47.00.
Note: The price of Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing above was current when this content was published. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin author when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use This Product
No matter what kind 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 websites.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, plugins and themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you understand what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your website is hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress website easier.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Product Suite
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