The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s 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 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Could your website be next?
(Image: 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 security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that your site offers no value to hackers, but the reality is that every website is valuable to a malicious user.
If someone can exploit a security opening that lets them control your site, that web site can then be employed to attack more valued web sites.
The truth is that hackers are most likely trying to hack into your web site while you are reading this page right now. Whether they will hack into your site successfully will depend on how difficult or easy you will make things for them to keep persisting until they discover a way to get access, or give up and go look for a less protected target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(WordPress Security Scan Source: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns various results and information about your WordPress setup …
(Hackertarget – WP security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can see all of this information about your WordPress site, then hackers can too.
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
The ability 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 potentially valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about any security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to malicious users and bots.
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 began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by its hosting company. This particular site had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it was still hacked.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed 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 malicious files designed to drive unsuspecting visitors to the site and hijack Paypal account information.
(Product image: BlogDefender website)
Matt’s experience is evidence that all websites have some value to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your WordPress installation are …
And let’s you easily fix these …
WP Plugins
The Blog Defender security product suite comes with 3 plugins:
Plugin #1 in the Blog Defender product suite helps you schedule automated backups …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do secure backups to your server, external servers and cloud-based backup solutions using different backup methods (e.g. FTP), automate full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to new domains or server locations), do bulk text string replacements in databases, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides WordPress security …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
Pro Plugin #2 “WordPress Security” performs a range of site and file security functions (see “Features” section below).
The third plugin lets you scan your WordPress site to see whether code in your files has been altered, and fix the problem …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your content without reciprocating the favor).
Blog Defender – Videos
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes a number of training in video format and written guides that teach you exactly how to protect your site from hackers …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your web site:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite install like any regular plugin. Just upload them to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is a DIY training product that will take you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set things up, and even which free plugins you should install to get the job done without paying for unnecessary costs.
Additional benefits and advantages include:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protect Your Info Products From Theft – If your site sells digital products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video training, etc.), your product can end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Search Engines – When a site gets hacked, you can 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. As a result, your, website or blog can get closed by your webhost, or even blacklisted by search engines. Additionally, your contacts can be spammed, your subscriber list and financial details can be stolen, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender provides a number of great features to web site owners.
The product addresses the following issues:
- Host Security Advisory
- Plugin Security Audits
- 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
- Monitor Files
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate Core WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Online Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps for securing your web site, addressing hosting security, using tools to quickly identify risky WordPress themes and WP plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender security process. Source: Blog Defender)
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials plugin customers have submitted regarding 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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”Since working with blogs, I… like many others, have been concerned about how to handle the constant threat of blog attacks. After having a look at Blog Defender you can’t help but become most aware of the vulnerable areas all bloggers need to protect. Blog Defender is viable WordPress blog security prevention system that offers video instruction along with 3 software plugins that are free to download. The instruction shows the optimum settings on how to use the free plugins that will allow you top level force against blog hacker attacks.” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Plugin Tips
According to the plugin developer, no sites using Blog Defender were hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
Matt Garrett, 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 constant game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers can currently harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’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, complete refund guarantee.
Product Licensing Price
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 details of Blog Defender can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price shown above was current at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin seller when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here:
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 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 essential maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WP installation, plugins and WordPress themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website to malicious by hackers and bots.
Adopting a security procedure like the one that 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 website is compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid major security risks without investing in expensive solutions.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Suite For WordPress
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