The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and this 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.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image source: 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)
As described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your site provides little to no value to hackers, but the reality is that every website is valuable to a malicious user.
If a hacker can access and gain remote access of your web site, your website or blog can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target other valued web sites.
The truth is that malicious bots are very likely scouring for security exploits and trying to break into your website while you are reading this page right now. Whether they can hack into your site depends on how challenging you can make things for hackers to keep persisting until they discover how to get access, or are forced to decide to look for an easier target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – Website Security Scan Product image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test will yield various results and details about your website setup …
(Hackertarget – website security scan results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you can access all of this information, then hackers can too.
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
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 on your server can all be useful information to hackers, as this informs them about exploitable 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 web site and make your site invisible to malicious attackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended by the webhost. This blog was not being used and so had practically no value to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred inside his server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
Matt’s experience demonstrates that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security weaknesses in your WordPress site are …
And let’s you fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
Blog Defender includes three plugins:
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud-based solutions using different backup methods (e.g. Email), perform complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites 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 …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” performs a range of site protection functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan your WordPress plugins, themes, core files and content to see whether code in your files has been changed, and repair the problem …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious content have been inserted into your site files, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes video guides plus training guides that teach you exactly what to do to protect your site from malicious users …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Set Up
The plugins are quite easy to install. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugins to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow DIY 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 install to get the job done.
Additional plugin benefits include:
- Protect your website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products From Theft – If you are a digital product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free downloading sites.
- Avoid Getting Blacklisted By Your Host – When a website has been hacked, you can expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, website could be suspended by your host, or even blocked by search engines. And if that isn’t enough to have to deal with, 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.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender offers many great features to WP users.
Blog Defender addresses the following areas:
- Host Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- Monitoring Files
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps to help protect your website, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image: BlogDefender.com)
User Feedback
Below are a couple of the testimonials and feedback customers have submitted regarding the Blog Defender solution:
”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
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, since Blog Defender was first released, no websites using Blog Defender were hacked.
The product developer 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 an escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers presently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier 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.
Blog Defender 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 money-back guarantee.
Product Price
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.. Cost = $47.00.
Note: The cost of purchasing the Blog Defender software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the software is being retailed for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the product developer 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 Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Our Recommendation
No matter what type 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 web platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, plugins and WP themes updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security procedures like the one Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what your responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major security risks without paying for costly solutions.
For more details, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress
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