The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and this is getting worse.
You can safely 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 over 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image: 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 sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website or blog has no value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites are valuable to a malicious user.
If hackers can find a way to gain complete control of your blog, that website or blog can then be used to target other valued websites.
The reality is that brute-force software bots are trying to break into your website at this very moment. Whether they will successfully get into your site or not, will depend on how difficult or easy you can make it for them to continue trying until they either discover how to get access, 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?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(WP Security Scan Product image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the test will yield a number of results and details about your website …
(website security check results. Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to freely access all of this information, hackers can too.
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
The ability to see which version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories on your server can be potentially useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about potentially exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Product Suite
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of BlogDefender developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into. This site had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it still was attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being contacted by his host and noticing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred inside the site, as well as the addition of several phishing files by whoever had broken into his site.
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
This example is evidence that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security weaknesses in your website are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly and easily …
Plugins
Blog Defender comes with 3 plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and popular cloud solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. FTP), perform full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to new domains or server locations), do bulk text replacements in databases, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 provides WordPress security …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
The plugin provides a range of website protection functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” scans your WordPress plugins, themes and WordPress core files to see whether anything in your files has been tampered with, and repair problems …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been added to your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your content without offering any benefit in return).
Blog Defender – Video Tutorials
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender security suite also includes seven step-by-step training modules (video) and training guides that will show you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from hackers …
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
Learn more here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Configure
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product are quite easy to install. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free plugins to use to get the job done without paying for additional or unnecessary expenses.
Additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Protect Your Info Products – If you sell info products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Host – When a website has been hacked, you can expect to go through a great deal of frustration and heartache. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. During this time, your, sites can be suspended by your webhost, or even deindexed by search engines. In addition, your personal contacts could be spammed, your subscriber list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender make your your website or blog invisible to hackers and malicious botnets.
The product helps you fix all of the following issues:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- 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
- File Monitoring
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps to help secure your your WordPress installation, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Testimonials From Plugin Users
Below are a couple of the testimonials that users have published about the Blog Defender security suite:
”Great way to secure your blog!” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.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, no websites protected by the solution were hacked since Blog Defender’s first release.
Matt 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 never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools that developers currently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’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.
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, 30 day, complete refund guarantee.
Product Licensing 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. Currently, the software is selling for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you simply cannot ignore.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WP core files, WP plugins and themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting security procedures like the one Blog Defender provides, will help you understand what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if the security on your website is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your site easier.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender WordPress Security Suite
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