The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and things are only going to get worse.
You can safely 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 began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot image: 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)
According to leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your website or blog provides no value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, every website provides an opportunity to profit or benefit at your expense.
If a hacker can exploit a security vulnerability that lets them gain remote control of your website or blog, the website or blog can then be employed to target more valued sites.
The reality is that hackers are most likely trying to break into your website at this very moment. Whether they will hack into your site successfully depends on how difficult you will make it for hackers or botnets to keep trying until they work out a way to get access, or are forced to decide to look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(Website Security Scan Image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the scan will yield various results and information about your website setup …
(WP security check results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can freely access all of this information about your blog, then so can hackers.
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
Being able 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 in your site can be valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the creator of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother got hacked into. This particular site was new and so had practically no value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being contacted by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within the server, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files designed to lure visitors to the site and hijack Paypal account details.
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience should be enough to illustrate the fact that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly …
WordPress Plugins
Blog Defender comes with 3 plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Source: BlogDefender site)
This plugin lets you do secure site and file backups to your server, external servers and well-known cloud-based backup solutions using different backup methods (including FTP and email backups), schedule complete or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites 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 …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
The “WordPress Security” plugin provides a range of vital site security functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” lets you scan your website to see whether any of your files have been altered, and repair the problem …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 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 others benefit from your hard work without reciprocating the favor).
Training Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes 7 training modules in video format and downloadable documentation that teach you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from hackers …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below are just some of the benefits 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 plugins are really easy to install. Simply upload them to your Plugins folder via your WP admin login and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a DIY training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which plugins you can use for free to get the job done inexpensively.
Additional benefits and advantages include:
- Protect your site from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Prevent Your Info Products From Being Stolen – If your site sells information products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid A Tragic Situation – When a website has been hacked, expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. As a result, your, web presence can get suspended by your webhost, or even blacklisted in search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your personal or financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender provides many features to WordPress users.
The product provides fixes for the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- Monitoring Files
- Link Monitoring
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical sequence of steps for securing your site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to identify risky themes and WP plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Image source: BlogDefender.com)
User Feedback
Here are just a few of the testimonials and comments customers have provided for the Blog Defender solution:
”Great way to secure your blog!” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.com
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”A top level force against hacker attacks!” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, no sites using Blog Defender have been hacked since Blog Defender’s first release in 2012.
The product developer also states on his site, however …
“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 technologies that developers presently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than many 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 money-back guarantee.
Product Cost
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.
Please Note: The cost of purchasing the Blog Defender software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was current at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
What We Recommend
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, plugins and themes, 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 Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what’s going on in your site and where the security holes 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 which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress installation easier.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Plugin
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