The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and this is getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s inevitable that at some point in time someone will attempt to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that over 160,000+ legitimate WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
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 WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every web site with a security vulnerability provides some degree of opportunity to hackers. No website or blog is immune from cyber attacks. Corporate sites, personal blogs, government sites … even websites owned by web security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.
If a malicious user can find a security flaw, your website or blog can then be employed to attack larger and more highly-valued websites.
The harsh reality is that brute-force software bots are very likely trying to hack into your blog at this very moment. Whether they can break into your site successfully depends on how hard you will make it for them to continue persisting until they either can work out how to get in, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less protected target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …
(WP Security Check Image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the scan will display a number of results and details about your WordPress setup …
(Hackertarget – WordPress security scan results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the scanning tool that if you can see all of this information about your WordPress website, hackers can too.
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)
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 valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about exploitable security weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution to stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and protect against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress Blogs
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit developed BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended by the webhost. This particular blog was almost brand new and had practically no value to offer, yet it still was targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and noticing that a significant amount of unusual activity had occurred inside his site, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
This simple example is evidence that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for security vulnerabilities …
And then shows you how to fix these quickly and easily …
Blog Defender – Plugins
The Blog Defender security product includes 3 WordPress plugins:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
The “Automated Backups” plugin lets you do secure site, file and data backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud backup solutions using a number of backup methods (e.g. FTP), perform full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), do bulk text string replacements in databases, perform auto database scans and repairs, and more.
Pro Plugin # 2 provides your WP site with security …
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
The plugin performs a range of vital site and file protection functions (see “Features” section below).
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” allows you to scan your WordPress plugins, themes and WP core files to see whether any code in your files has been changed, and repair any problems detected …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been added to your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where others benefit from your work without reciprocating the favor).
Training Videos
In addition to the plugins, Blog Defender also includes videos plus downloadable guides that will teach you exactly how to protect your website from malicious attacks …
(Screenshot image: Blog Defender)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Benefits
Here we have listed 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 No Time
The plugins install like every other plugin. Just upload the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WP admin section and activate.
Really Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow DIY step-by-step training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free WordPress plugins you should install to get things done inexpensively.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Secure your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, bad bots, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you’re an info product creator (e.g. downloadable ebooks, video tutorials, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Suspended By Your Web Host And Delisted By Search Engines – When a website gets 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. In the meantime, your, blog could get closed by your webhost, or even blocked by search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and a whole lot more.
Features
Blog Defender was created to keep your sites and your business safe and secure 24/7.
Blog Defender provides fixes for all of the following security areas:
- Hosting 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
- Track Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighten Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender provides a logical sequence of steps to help secure your web site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot: Blog Defender)
Feedback From Users
Below are just some testimonials and comments plugin customers have provided for Blog Defender:
”Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re too small or not important enough to be hacked! I’ve found out that I’ve had bots in the backend of my sites, making alterations and changing things around, so there’s no telling what damage they’ve caused. I’ve had my main blog for over 3 years now, and the thought of losing all the hard work I’ve put into it is just devastating, not to mention costly! I have a shared hosting plan, so of course once they can get into one site, they can also access the others. Luckily, I now have the procedures detailed within Blog Defender in place so that I can prevent the majority of this ever happening again. Once you’ve secured one site it gets a lot quicker to secure all subsequent sites. With Blog Defender, you get easy-to-follow videos, along with a detailed checklist that you can downloadf. You are literally walked through the process of securing your blog against hackers, which has given me real peace of mind. This is a growing issue that all website owners are facing; so it isn’t going to go away. Prevention is better than cure, particularly as some of the nastier hacks around can literally ruin your business. So do yourself a favour – get your sites protected now, before it’s too late.” Nikki Stephens, www.nikkistephens.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 the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, since Blog Defender was first released, no Blog Defender-secured sites were hacked.
Matt 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.”
Cybersecurity is is a perpetual game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the information and tools that developers can currently get their hands on. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t need constant attention, doesn’t cost a fortune 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, complete refund guarantee.
Software 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.
Note: Pricing details of Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the product author when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing:
Additional Plugin Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot ignore the importance of web security.
WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WP installation, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your responsibilities are as the site owner, 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 all the major WordPress security holes without paying a lot of money.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Suite
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