The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and it’s 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.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that over 160,000+ WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Image 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)
According to leading 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.
You may think that your website or blog provides no value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, every website is an opportunity to gain some benefit at your expense.
If someone can exploit a software weakness in your security, the website can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against more valuable websites.
The harsh reality is that hackers are probably trying to break into your web site as you are reading this. Whether they will break in successfully or not, will depend on how difficult or easy you have made things for hackers and botnets to continue trying until they either discover how to get in, or are forced to give up and go look for an easier target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(WP Security Scan Image source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and details about your WordPress installation …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security scan results. Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can access all of this information about your WordPress site, hackers can too.
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
Being able to see which 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 are all potentially useful information to hackers, as this informs them about any potential vulnerabilities, especially where site owners haven’t updated their sites.
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 Plugin
Product Description
Blog Defender is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit began looking for a way to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by the webhost. This particular site had literally nothing to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being suspended by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside the site, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files by whoever had broken into his site.
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress installation for potential security holes …
And let’s you easily fix these …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The Blog Defender security product comes with 3 plugins:
Pro Plugin # 1 in the product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do automated site, file and data backups to your server, external servers and cloud solutions using different backup methods (e.g. FTP), automate full or partial backups, exclude files or tables from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text in your database, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” provides your website or blog with security …
(Product image: Blog Defender)
The plugin provides a range of file and site security functions (see “Product Features” section below).
Pro Plugin # 3 allows you to scan your WP plugins, WP themes and core files to see if code in your files has been modified, and fix any problems found …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
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 work without reciprocating the favor).
Video Tutorials
In addition to plugins, the Blog Defender WP security product suite also includes seven training modules in video format and training guides that show you exactly what to do to protect your website from hackers and bots …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Below 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 web site:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
The Blog Defender plugins install just like any plugin. Simply upload them to your Plugin folder via your admin user account and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as a DIY step-by-step 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 WordPress plugins to install to get things done inexpensively.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Secure your website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Theft – If you sell info products (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Web Host And Banned By Search Engines – When a website is hacked, expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. In the meantime, your, account can get suspended by your webhost, or even blocked in search engines. And if that isn’t painful enough, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details or financial information, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender hide your site from hackers and malicious botnets.
Blog Defender helps you fix the following security areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- WP 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
- Monitoring Files
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender follows a logical sequence of steps for securing 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. Source: BlogDefender.com)
User Feedback
Here are a few of the testimonials plugin users have published about Blog Defender:
”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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”I sure wish I’d had this before I lost over a dozen blogs just recently. Okay, it was my fault for not securing things more, BUT… I didn’t have a handy, current reference like this to turn to for quick help either.;)” Kathe Lucas – www.wackycentral.com
Plugin Tips
According to Matt Garrett’s site, no Blog Defender-secured sites were hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
Matt Garrett, 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 is a constant game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools that developers can currently harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than many web security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Product 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 no-risk, 30 day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software 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.
Note: Price details for the Blog Defender product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price shown above was current at the time this article was published. This may or may not be the actual price set by the product author when you visit the product site 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 Plugin Information
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
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 cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple 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.
Adopting security procedures such as the one that Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what your security responsibilities as a website owner 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 how to avoid major security risks without paying a lot of money.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender Security Plugin
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