How To Keep Your WordPress Blog From Being Hacked

13 | Posted In Blogging, Technical by David

Has your blog ever been hacked?

Have you ever had that horrible, sinking feeling when you go to check out your blog, only to find that it isn’t even there anymore?

If you haven’t had it happen yet, there’s a decent chance you will. I have. More than once.

And it sucks.

One moment your blog is humming along fine, then all of a sudden you’re out of commission. You feel helpless. Your web host throws up their hands and says “It ain’t our problem, bud.” And you just want to KILL somebody.

A long-time reader of my blog recently approached me with his new e-book…

AND IT JUMPED RIGHT OUT AT ME AND SMACKED ME IN THE HEAD!

OK, not literally, but it is designed specifically to help you fully secure your WordPress blog. It is called WordPress Defender.

book-and-dvd-set

So, here’s the deal. I don’t usually promote e-books. I’ve only done it one other time that I can remember. So, I had John send me a copy to review so I could make sure it was good enough to tell my audience about. And you know what?…

I WAS SERIOUSLY IMPRESSED.

Not only has John gone way beyond the basics when it comes to fully securing your blog, but he’s managed to do it while cutting through all the jargon and technical BS that usually confuses everybody.

This e-book is 150 pages of pure blog security. But, John has even produced nearly 2 hours of video that walks you through what he talks about in the book (an awesome way to pile on more value to an e-book offer, BTW).

I’ve hooked you up with a special discount – just for my readers. Get an instant 25% off his normal price by using the coupon code: risley25.

We all know that new Worpress versions come out all the darn time. They are always finding security holes with it. If you want to make yourself immune, I highly recommend you check out WordPress Defender.

Learn 30 Ways To Secure Your Blog

Free eBook!

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  • http://www.dotcomnote.com/ Dotcom Note

    Folks, you don't have to worry about someone hacking your blog unless you're getting tens of thousands of visitors and your blog is one of the top sites. Just keep your database backed. No need to spend money where none needed. No need to build bunkers for some imaginary Armageddon.

  • http://wpbloghost.com/ John Hoff – WP Blog Host

    Hello Dotcom Note, sorry to disagree with you… but your assumption is incorrect.

    One of the reasons why so many blogs get hacked is because so many people don't think their blog is a target, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, hackers look for easy targets like that because they know those people probably haven't done much to protect their sites.

    It doesn't matter how much traffic your blog gets, 1 visit to 10 million per day, any and ALL blogs are at risk. I've personally had my blog attacked multiple times and I do not receive tens of thousands of hits. My wife's jewelry website which received fewer than 100 hits per month got hacked (which is what started me on this journey).

    I've had people come to me asking me to do these upgrades for them because their blogs had been hacked into. Their blogs were small.

    One visit to the WordPress support forums and search for help threads where people talking about their blogs being hacked will back this. You could also Google “My blog was hacked” and look at the number of returned results. I guarantee you that not all of those 4.5 MILLION blogs only received tens of thousands of hits.

    The very first step in WordPress security is knowing that any and all blogs are at risk, including yours.

    Also, keep in mind that a database backup will not guarantee that your blog will be ok. People have had their blogs hacked into and replacing the database with a fresh backup doesn't work.

    For example, someone could gain access to your FTP and upload a file to your hosting account disguised as an image file. You'd probably have a hard time finding that file unless you had a monitoring system set up to alert you.

    Your best bet with backups is to make sure you have both a backup of your database and WordPress files on your hosting account.

  • http://twitter.com/geeksdreamgirl Geek's Dream Girl

    Dotcom – My blog isn't “one of the top sites” and it was hacked. Same with my boyfriend's blog. Same with some other bloggers we know, none of which have big sites or necessarily “hot” topics.

    I hired John after my blog was hacked to put in security measures on my site. Not only has my blog been safe since then, I've actually seen the reports coming in about hack attempts (and there have been quite a few!) that his security system blocked.

    While I'm more of a “pay other people to fix it” type person, my boyfriend is a “do-it-yourself-er” and bought John's ebook and implemented the security features on his site.

    We both rest easy knowing that our sites are much, much harder to hack. :-)

  • http://www.speedonlinewealth.com/blog Lillea Woodlyns

    WordPress Defender is excellent! It's great to see endorsements for it. I think that most people don't realise just how vulnerable their blogs are, as John describes. I find the directions easy to follow. The videos are great. I have implemented most of the security fixes by watching the videos, pausing them after each step so I can copy what John does with my own sites, and so on. That way I can be sure that I'm doing everything correctly. Great way to tighten up security fast and without stress. He makes complex things very easy to understand and do.

  • Davinahaisell

    I agree completely with Lillea about John having made this topic easy to understand. The diagrams he's created illustrate the steps to follow. WordPress Defender is a good mix of instruction that supports both the visually oriented learner and the instructional learner. My blog is not a high profile blog either, but after the security features were put in place I too received notifications of hack attempts.

  • http://www.melvinblog.com/ Melvin

    I think thats a great product for someone who is totally new to website and blog security. I dont want to say securing your blog well is really hard but if its gonna be helpful for most people then im fine with it.

  • http://evengrounds.com/blog Julius

    I've only heard of WordPress Defender just now. I'll check it out over the weekend. Thanks for the coupon code.

  • http://twitter.com/BSwafford Barbara Swafford

    Hi David,

    I agree. This book gets two thumbs up from me, too. Although I've never had my blog hacked, I do worry about it. Having blogged for three years, I certainly wouldn't want all I worked for be hacked and who knows how long it would take to get it back up.

    My thought is “better safe than sorry” and it's to the WordPress Defender book and videos I'm turning to make my blogs safe and secure.

    And as a bonus, John is never more than a click away. How cool is that?

  • http://www.sweetfix.net.au/ Cupcakes Brisbane

    The common exploit is that fact all WP Blogs have the same file structure which makes it an easy target. Im guna get this book in the hope it can tell me how to make these factor a non-issue. Thanks!

  • http://www.sweetfix.net.au/ Cupcakes Brisbane

    The common exploit is that fact all WP Blogs have the same file structure which makes it an easy target. Im guna get this book in the hope it can tell me how to make these factor a non-issue. Thanks!

  • http://www.vancesova.com Vance Sova

    Hi David,

    I found this to be an important information and thank you for that. I already have a pretty good protection but I wanted to get this as well.

    However when I entered your incentive coupon code I was told in the pop up window that it has already expired.

    I would like to know if you can renew it or if you will remove it from this page so people are no longer being misled.

    I don't hold this against you since you probably had no idea this was taking place.

    I look forward to your fixing it and your reply.

    Best Regards,
    Vance

  • http://wpbloghost.com/ John Hoff – WP Blog Host

    Hi Vance. Sorry, that was my fault. When I created the coupon code, E-Junkie gave it a time limit. I've removed the time limit and you can use the coupon code once again.

    Again, really sorry about that.

  • http://www.vancesova.com Vance Sova

    Hi John,

    No problem, things happen. The main thing is that you fixed it and everything is back to normal.

    Thanks for responding so quickly.

    Vance