The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation 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.
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! 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 WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a vulnerability has potential value to hackers. An unsecured blog not only offers hackers opportunities to improve their hacking skills and claim “bragging rights” from their peers, but it can also acts as a platform for launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, spreading malware and defrauding online users through information theft.
If someone can find a way to break in and gain control of your site, your blog can then be employed as a “bot” to attack larger and more valuable web sites.
The truth is that hackers are very likely scouring for weaknesses and trying to hack into your web site at this very moment. Whether they can hack in successfully or not, depends on how challenging you will make things for hackers and bots to keep persisting until they either discover how to break in, or are forced to give up and go look for an easier target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(WP Security Scan Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan will return various results and information about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – WP security check results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to access all of this information about your blog, so can hackers.
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
The ability to see what version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories in your site are all potentially useful information to hackers, as this informs them about potentially exploitable security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and help to protect it against malicious attacks.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product 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 site he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended by the webhost. This site had literally no value to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being contacted by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred within the site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Image source: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience shows that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security weaknesses in your WordPress installation are …
And let’s you fix these quickly and easily …
Plugins
The Blog Defender security suite of products includes three plugins:
Plugin #1 in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
This plugin lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, external servers and popular cloud solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. FTP), automate full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore 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 website with security …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #2 performs a range of essential website security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan your WordPress plugins, themes, core files and content to detect if any of your files have been tampered with, and fix the problem …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts 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 providing anything of value in return).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes 7 video training modules and training documentation that will show you exactly how to protect your website from malicious attacks …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Go here to learn more:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Set Up
The plugins are quite easy to install. Simply upload the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP administrator login and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which WordPress plugins you can use for free to get the job done without incurring extra expenses.
Additional benefits include:
- Protect your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Prevent Your Info Products From Being Freely Distributed – If you’re an information product author (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free download sites.
- Avoid Getting Suspended By Your Web Host And Banned By Search Engines – When a site is hacked, expect to go through a great deal of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. Your, account can be suspended by your webhost, or even deindexed in search engines. In addition, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business and financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and much more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender was created to keep your sites and your business safe and secure 24/7.
The product helps you fix the following security areas and vulnerabilities:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- 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 Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process for securing your website, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then helping you implement website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Source: BlogDefender.com)
Feedback From Users
Below are some of the testimonials that customers have published about the Blog Defender solution:
”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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”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
Useful Tips
According to Matt Garrett, the plugin developer, no websites or blogs using Blog Defender were hacked since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012.
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 never-ending game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools developers can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, won’t cost you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most premium security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
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, thirty day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin 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.
Please Note: Pricing for the Blog Defender plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the plugin is being retailed for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin seller when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing information:
Additional Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
What We Recommend
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 ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like making sure that your WordPress core files, plugins and themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting security policies 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 site is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major WordPress security holes without costly solutions.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress Blogs
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