The golden era of technology is well underway, and we’ve covered a lot of ground in the past years. It seems that everyone is slowly but surely becoming tech experts with our knowledge continuously upgrading. From newcomers that are barely capable of performing basic tasks, we came to a point where we are able to achieve great results and manipulate the online world to our will. Making us technologically literate has opened many doors and granted us with countless possibilities, one of which is what you are dedicated to right now – making marvelous content and presenting it to your audience.
But on the other end of the story, the bad guys are swarming the online world as well, AKA hackers. Months and years of your hard work can perish in a second, and your website can become a storage unit for illegal files, become a mine for exploiting information, and you can get in a lot of trouble for something you weren’t aware of.
Imagine that: you build, create, restore, and produce, and all of it gets destroyed in a matter of seconds because you were a victim of a cyber attack. Let’s face it: the Internet isn’t a safe place anymore. It can be filled with puppies, kittens, unicorns, and rainbows, but the spectrum expands all the way to the creepy crawlers you want to stay the hell away from. Malicious attacks and threats are present every day, and if you don’t do anything about it, it’s highly possible that you will get caught up in that cycle if you don’t have the proper tools, of course.
You want to preserve your data, keep your website clean and safe, and keep working without the thought of someone ripping it apart? Glad you asked because there is a destroyer of threats and protector of realms in terms of WordPress website security, and that is IP Threat Blocker by Musubu. Alongside this, incorporating additional security measures such as WP Force SSL – which ensures secure encrypted connections, and WP Login Lockdown – a tool that safeguards against brute force attacks, can create a comprehensive, multi-layered defense system for your WordPress website.
What are some common threats?
Let me give you an introduction to this bad boy that will wipe away every threat that comes your way. The most simple way to put it would be that IP Threat Blocker by Musubu is a WordPress plugin that automatically stops harmful visitors from entering your sites, with additional protection from malware, ransomware, botnets, and phishing. A good old saying goes: „know your enemy“ so let’s get familiar with these terms so we can know exactly what we are going up against.
Malware
Malware is software with malicious intent that can severely damage your website in multiple ways. It can change its appearance in order to replace your content with theirs and promote any kind of agenda or some other type of information that can promote unorthodox stands (basically anything the hacker wants, which is usually harmful, spam, and doesn’t belong on your website). It can also redirect your users to other harmful sites, place ads with viruses, and even blacklist your website, which will result in removing it from search results and flagging it. All things considered, your content can be erased, users scattered, and your website seriously damaged.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malware that attacks and „kidnaps“ your website. Basically, through different methods, an attacker can take your site over and request money for its recovery. The prices may vary, but depending on your traffic, it can reach a price of hundreds or even thousands of dollars. They tend to increase the price the longer you wait.
Botnets
Botnets are software applications that perform any action that their master desires. When your computer gets infected, it becomes a part of the infected network, and it can be controlled remotely to perform tasks, such as mass-spam, DDoS attacks, steal data, etc.
Pishing
Phishing is a process that includes hacking your website and using your resources to send emails with malicious content and scam the users. People who use this method can sometimes even mimic a popular website so that you leave your personal information, and therefore steal your login info and, most importantly, credit card numbers.
Now that we’ve explained these terms and see the full picture, it’s clear that you don’t want to mess with any of these occurrences. Your cybersecurity might be seriously endangered, and you want to keep those hackers as far away from your website as possible. And how can you do that? By hiring your own personal bodyguard, of course!
What is IP Threat Blocker?
IP Threat Blocker by Musubu detects suspicious and dangerous IPs, using an application program interface (API for short). It classifies threat scores by four different categories:
- High (a threat is considered high if it has a threat score larger than 70)
- Medium (threat score between 40 and 70)
- Nuisance (threat score between 20 and 40)
- Low (threat score lower than 20)
At this point, you are probably asking yourself how does this software do it. How does it recognize the threats? What methods does it use for blocking and removing them? Does it block safe users, ergo, can it hurt your traffic? If you are asking those questions, stay tuned because I am going to give you the answers and detailed insights on this amazing plugin.
Let’s start with basics and get under the hood to discover how does IP Threat Blocker get the job done. Every user that enters your site can pose a potential threat, which is why every single one needs to be background checked so you can guarantee your website’s safety. This is exactly what this plugin does. It conducts a detailed scan of the user, its IP address, country, and network of origin determines if it can pose a cyber threat, and if so, what kind of threat it is.
But what happens if a hacker is extremely advanced and it can do the damage before the plugin can react? One step ahead of you – it performs the scan before any user can enter the website, so you don’t have to worry about the plugin being too slow and not respond in time. Before the hacker even gets the chance to do his dirty work, the plugin will recognize him and get him on his way to a permanent ban. If you are worried because you don’t have the proper knowledge or experience with cybersecurity, fear no more because now there is no need to.
IP Threat Blocker by Musubu does everything for you so you can just lay back, chill and be safe. You can set it to either manual or automatic mode, so you are always in control of who enters your website and who stays out. By choosing an automatic mode, the plugin recognizes the threat by itself, using the mentioned criteria. If someone is identified as a threat (meaning that it has a threat score larger than 80), the plugin will immediately block the malicious intents in a blink of an eye. On the other hand, you can settle for a manual mode where you will control the criteria and be the master of the entrance to your website.
If you change your mind and decide that you want to let someone in, you can always unblock the user’s IP, but be cautious and always know who gets the tickets to join the party. Isn’t it annoying when you find a perfect plugin that perfectly serves its purpose, does wonders on your website, and just when you think you’ve got it all right you notice that it is interfering with other plugins? Well, not this time, because this amazing software makes no plugin conflicts, which results in smooth and carefree usage.
With all of these features included, you must presume that using this plugin is strictly coded and that it will be complicated for using and maintaining. Demanding configuration, constant checkups, and confusing options are not the qualities we are looking in a plugin. Luckily, this one doesn’t possess them. The team that built IP Threat Blocker is a team of cyber experts that predicted your worries and eliminated them with their master craftsmanship, because other than its features, it’s super simple to use. The entire process can fit into four simple steps:
- Purchase the plugin
- Install in into your WordPress instance
- Apply the API key that you will receive on your email
- Choose between the manual or automatic mode
And just like that, within a few minutes, you can set up the ultimate defense against any potential threat against your website. The moment you add it, it rolls up its sleeves and gets to work by blocking the user and displaying its information, so whenever a person/bot with a high threat score tries to breach your website, it will get blocked and listed in the „Blocked IP Addresses“ section which can be found in the settings tab of the plugin. You will get a full listing of every blocked user, with all of the information you need divided into five categories:
- IP address
- Threat score
- Threat class
- Country of origin
- Date blocked
With that data, you will always know exactly which user tried to perform an attack, where is he from, what was the threat score and which type of attack did it tried to achieve. Want to know every detail about the attacker? You can click on the IP address and get even more info, such as address’s location, network type, network owner, and even the street address.
When it comes to support and updates, they are well covered in those fields as well. Hackers expand their knowledge daily, and to preserve and protect your data, the developers are always on your service, so everything remains in check. If you have any questions or dilemmas, you can always contact their support team via email address: suppport@musubu.co and expect a swift response. There might be an IP address that wasn’t a threat yesterday, but is it safe today? A question you don’t need to ask yourself anymore because this plugin watches your back constantly. The cool thing is that it doesn’t require updates as a result of using Musubu API, so you don’t have to pay attention to it at all. Set it to automatic and enjoy.
Costs, Caveats, Etc.
Now the part you’ve all been waiting for: the price of this amazing plugin. If you are prepared for an expensive membership, you are in for a treat because the yearly pricing for this plugin costs only $20. You own multiple pages and want to secure them all? In that case, it gets even better since you get an additional discount for a larger quantity. If you want to purchase this plugin for 2-5 pages, you get a 5% discount, 10% on 6-10 pages, etc.
Owning, building, and maintaining a website can be exhausting, considering that it takes a lot of time and effort to achieve your goals. It can take months or even years for you to unlock your full potential, but all of that can go down the drain if your juicy content gets noticed by online bullies who are ready to do whatever it takes to complete their objectives. Remove your content, send spam messages, mine cryptocurrencies, import viruses, steal your data, set up malicious ads, and the list goes on and on. A study found that a cyber attack is being performed every 39 seconds, and it’s only a matter of time before one of those lands right on your doorstep.
There are two paths you can follow. Be an easy victim and risk losing all of your WordPress achievements, users and content, or set up impenetrable defenses that will exterminate any potential threat and make sure that they stay out. The choice is yours.