The sheer number 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 your website or blog hasn’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 began reporting that over 160,000+ WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Screenshot 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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every site with a vulnerability offers some degree of value to hackers. No blog Large, medium and small business websites, personal blogs, government sites … even websites owned by online security experts can and have been targeted.
If a malicious user can discover a security flaw that allows them to remotely control your website, the blog can then be employed as a “bot” to attack other highly-valued web sites.
The reality is that hackers are looking for security weaknesses and trying to hack into your website while you are reading this page at this very moment. Whether they can be successful depends on how hard or easy you can make things for them to keep persisting until they discover how to get access, 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 Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Check Screenshot: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check will return a number of results and information about your WordPress site …
(WordPress security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you can freely access all of this information about your website, then hackers can too.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
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 can be valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about exploitable vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and help to protect it against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress 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 site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by the hosting company. This particular blog had practically nothing of value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being contacted by his host and seeing that a significant amount of unusual activity had taken place within his site, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
This example provides the valuable lesson that every website has value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for security holes …
And let’s you fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The product suite comes with 3 plugins for WordPress:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #1 lets you do automated backups to your server, external servers and cloud backup solutions using different backup methods, automate full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text strings in your database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your web site with security …
(Source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #2 “WP Security” provides a range of website protection functions (see “Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan WordPress sites to see whether anything in your files has been modified, and repair the problem …
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content 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 offering you anything of benefit in return).
Blog Defender – Training Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes several step-by-step videos and PDF/DOC documentation that will show you exactly how to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
Go here to learn more:
Benefits
Below 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 web site:
Be Up And Running In No Time
The Blog Defender plugins install like every WP plugin. Simply upload them to your Plugin folder via your WP admin user area and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a DIY step-by-step 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 WordPress plugins you can use for free to get things done without paying additional expenses.
Some additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Secure Your Info Products – If your site sells information products (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Suspended By Your Web Host And Delisted By Search Engines – When a website has been hacked, you can 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. As a result, your, web presence can get closed by your host, or even blocked in search engines. And if that isn’t painful enough, your personal contacts can be 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 was designed to keep your sites and your business safe and secure 24/7.
The product helps you fix the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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
- Monitoring Files
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate Core Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps to help secure your web site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials and comments plugin users have published about the Blog Defender product:
”I’ve had to go through the inconvenience of a hacked blog before and let me tell you it’s not nice. With online security becoming an increasing problem, especially with WordPress, this is a great way to secure your blog. I’ll be following Matt’s training and securing all my blogs…Great job.” 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 the plugin developer, no Blog Defender-secured sites were hacked since Blog Defender’s original release.
The product developer 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 never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers currently can access. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, won’t cost you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than many web 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 money-back guarantee.
Product License 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.. Cost = $47.00.
Please Note: Pricing details of the Blog Defender software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller when you visit the 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.
Our Recommendation
Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your website is something you cannot ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, plugins and WordPress themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you learn 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 site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major security risks without costly solutions.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress Web Sites
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