The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, 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 inevitable that at some point in time someone will attempt to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website or blog with a vulnerability has some degree of potential value to hackers. An unsecured blog offers malicious users with a valuable platform for distributed denial of service attacks, spreading malware and to engage in information theft.
If someone can find a software security flaw and gain complete control of your web site, your website or blog can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyberattack against more valuable websites.
The harsh reality is that brute-force software bots are probably scouring for security exploits and trying to hack into your website or blog right now. Whether they will be successful or not, depends on how difficult you can make things for them to continue trying until they either can work out how to get access, or give up and go 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 website through their WordPress security check …
(Website Security Check Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan returns various results and information about your website setup …
(website security scan results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can freely access all of this information about your WordPress website, so can hackers.
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Being able to see which 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 can all be useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender Security Suite
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 creator of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended. This blog was fairly 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 noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within his site, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files designed to lure unsuspecting visitors to the site and hijack financial details.
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience is evidence that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for security holes …
And let’s you fix these quickly …
Blog Defender – WP Plugins
The product suite includes three plugins:
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud-based solutions using different backup methods (e.g. Email), perform complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do mass text string replacements in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides your WordPress web site with security …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 provides a range of vital site security functions (see “Features” section below).
The third plugin scans your WordPress website to see whether anything in your files has been modified, and repair any problems detected …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 others benefit from your hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Training Videos
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender WP security suite also includes several step-by-step video training plus downloadable guides that will teach you exactly what to do to protect your website from hackers …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Ready To Use In No Time
The plugins included with Blog Defender install just like any WP plugin. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a practical and useful training product that will take you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free plugins to install to get things done.
Some additional benefits of using this plugin include the following:
- Protect your site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Secure Your Info Products – If you are a digital product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, video training, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a website gets hacked, expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through the issues these have caused. As a result, your, website can get closed by your webhost, or even deindexed by search engines. And if that isn’t enough to have to deal with, your contacts could end up being spammed, your customer list and financial details can be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender hide your website from hackers and bots.
Blog Defender provides fixes for all of the following security 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
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- Monitoring Files
- Link Tracking
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automate WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process to help secure your your WordPress installation, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and WP plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
User Testimonials
Below are just a few of the testimonials that plugin customers have submitted for Blog Defender:
”This is probably one of those times you ask yourself ‘do I really need this product?’ Let’s face it, on the surface it’s not going to immediately put more money in your pocket or even add some cool new gizmo to your site… The truth is yes you do and you need it now. I’ve been in the online business for 10+ years and had my fair share of hacked sites which have cost me time and money (lots of it)…I’ve also seen a good number of people have their reputations and entire businesses left in tatters when their sites have been hacked. Right now is the time to act, because when it’s too late, well basically you’ll be screwed (and you’ll regret the day you passed over such a great opportunity to protect yourself for so little). And by the way, if you think your web host will come to your rescue think again, you’ll be on your own, paying to put things right and suffering the cost of lost sales and business. This is a seriously good product and if you rely on WordPress to make you money online then it’s nothing less than essential. Buy it, follow Matt’s expert advice and don’t end up another victim!” Simon Hodgkinson, www.hodgkinsonpublishing.com
***
”My business is built around the WordPress platform and I’m embarrassed to admin I’ve been slack in the security department. However, Matt’s training soon put that right! I followed each detailed video to the letter and discovered some incredible security tricks and plugins I’d never heard of before. Better still, all the plugins were free to download too! The end result? My WordPress membership site is now locked down tighter than Parkhurst at midnight and if anybody tries hacking it, I’ll be the first to know! thanks again Matt, I’m off to secure the rest of the blogs in my portfolio!” David Walker – www.inboxrockstar.com
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, no websites using Blog Defender were hacked since Blog Defender’s first release.
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.”
The war on hackers is is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers 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 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 risk-free, 30 day, full money-back guarantee.
Product 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: Price details for Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing above was current at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin seller when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Get The Product
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 ignore the importance of securing your web sites.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like making sure that your WordPress core files, plugins and WP themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies like the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what your security responsibilities as a website owner are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if the security on your site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your installation easier.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
***
***