The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and this is getting worse.
It’s 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 reported that 160,000+ legitimate WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every blog with a vulnerability offers some value to hackers. Every website is valuable to hackers. Corporate sites, personal blogs, government sites … even sites owned by web security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If someone can exploit a way to take over and control your website or blog, the website or blog can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyber attack against more valued web sites.
The reality is that malicious bots are probably trying to hack into your blog while you are reading this page. Whether they will break in or not, will depend on how hard you will make things for hackers or bots to continue persisting until they can 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?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Scan Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check will yield various results and details about your website …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security scan results. Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using this tool that if you are able to see all of this information, then so can hackers.
(Source: BlogDefender site)
Being able 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 can be useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about any exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their files.
Fortunately, there is a way you can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to malicious users and botnets.
Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress Web Sites
Product Description
Blog Defender 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 BlogDefender began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother got hacked into. This blog had literally no value to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place inside the site, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Source: Blog Defender)
This simple example provides the valuable lesson that all websites have value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security weaknesses in your WordPress installation are …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
WP Plugins
Blog Defender includes 3 WordPress plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
This plugin lets you do automated backups to your server, external servers and cloud-based storage solutions using different backup methods, automate full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text strings in your database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
The second plugin provides your site with security …
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
The “WordPress Security” plugin provides a range of website protection functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” scans your website or blog to detect if any of your files have been changed, and repair any problems found …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious scripts 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 – Step-By-Step Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender product suite also includes step-by-step training in video format plus printable documentation that show you exactly what you need to do to protect your site from hackers and bots …
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
For more details, visit the plugin site 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:
Ready To Go To Work In Minutes
The plugins are really easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugins folder via your admin account and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender is a step-by-step 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 plugins you can install for free to get things done without paying unnecessary costs.
Additional benefits include:
- Secure your WordPress site from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Being Stolen – If you’re a digital product creator (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blacklisted By Your Host – When a site is hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, website or blog could be closed by your host, or even blacklisted by search engines. Additionally, your personal contacts could be spammed, your customer list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender offers many features to WordPress users.
The product covers the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WordPress Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- WordPress Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hide WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- Monitoring Files
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical process to help secure your site, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Product image: Blog Defender)
User Feedback
Below are a few of the testimonials that users have provided for the Blog Defender product:
”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 the plugin developer, no Blog Defender-protected sites have been hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
The product developer 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 information and tools that developers presently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t require 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.
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, thirty day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Product Licensing Cost
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.
Note: Current pricing for the Blog Defender software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Install These Plugins
Regardless of the type 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 secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, 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 website is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress installation easier.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Blog Defender
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