Defender Pro
Security is one of the major priorities for any website owner, there is no such thing as being too secure. There’s an interesting plugin that deals with security, it is made by WPMU and it called Defender Pro. This plugin offers tons of intuitive, easy-to-use tools and really useful features and its part of the pack that WPMU offers as a subscription-based model.
The main features of the plugin are divided into: Automatic File Scans, Audit Logging, IP Lockout and the Blacklist Monitor. You will see there are even more features to be enabled that are not part of this quick setup.
What are the features inside Defender Pro?
- Scheduled Security Scans
Conduct regular security scans, notify admins of suspicious activity, and resolve issues in bulk.
- 2-Factor Authentication
Join millions who safeguard their accounts with two-factor authentication. Activate 2FA to protect your account with both your password and phone.
- Audit Login
Tired of mysterious breakages or slowness on your site? Keep detailed logs of every user action with the Audit Log feature.
- Instant Email Alerts
Never be left in the dark, with customized reports and automated email notifications about your security.
- IP Lockout
Brute force attacks are no match for Defender’s IP Lockout system. Protect your site with manual and automatic IP ban, and allow list control.
- Login Masking
Better secure your default login URL. Make it tougher for bots to find your login screen with a unique slug.
- Brute Force Protection
Brute force attacks are no match for Defender. Permanently ban IP’s or trigger a timed lockout after a set number of failed login attempts.
- Vulnerability Reports
Be notified when there’s a security issue or problem. Defender runs surveillance and sends notifications with the information that matters.
- White Label Security
Rebrand Defender’s security powers and replace with your own logo with the WPMU DEV dashboard plugin.
- Defender Configs
Automatically apply your security settings to connected Hub sites, or manually export / import configs to any site.
- Recommendation
Harden your site’s security in one click with Defender’s security recommendations.
- Security Headers
Add an extra layer of defense and protect against common attacks like: XSS, code injection, and more.
How Much does Defender Pro Cost?
There are three package that you can choose. Each of them has a different pricing:
- Defender Pro Only Everything you need to harden your WordPress security
- $5 / month
- $60 / year
- Saving $12 / year
- FREE 7 days trial
- Security & Backups Pack Full suite of security, backup, migration, and update automation tools
- $7.5 / month
- $90 / year
- Saving $18 / saving
- FREE 7 days trial
- WPMU DEV Membership For all your WordPress development and site management needs.
- $15.83 / month
- $190 / year
- Saving $38 / year
How to Get the Most Out of Defender Security?
With Defender, their 5-star WordPress protection plugin, keeping your WordPress site secure is always as simple as clicking a button. Defender guards your website against hackers, malicious code, SQL injections, and other threats 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This guide will teach you how to make the most of the plugin.
One of the best things about Defender is that as soon as he’s mounted, he’ll start recommending ways to improve your site’s security. He’ll then keep making suggestions on a regular basis while keeping your site clean, stable, and secured.
Despite the built-in automation, Defender gives you plenty of space to tweak, finetune, and harden the site’s security settings when it comes to getting the most out of the plugin.
- Make Security Adjustments
Security problems are automatically brought to your attention once Defender is mounted and activated. Security Tweaks will take care of the majority of them with a single click. Defender will almost immediately show you how many problems you have, what they are, and how to address them. Under Issues, everything is displayed in an actionable list.
When you choose a particular issue from the dropdown menu, you have two options: ignore or press the blue button to perform the suggested security tweak with a single click. If you want to fix the issue, it will appear in the Resolved section. It will be moved to the Ignored section if you ignore it. It will remain an issue if no action is taken. If you fix the problem and decide to keep it the way it was, you can press the Revert button at any time to go back to the previous state.
- Allow Malware Scanning with a Single Click
The Malware Scanning section allows you to scan for malware with a single click and set up Defender to scan all of your files on a regular basis, check for problems, and notify you (and anyone else you specify). Defender scans your WordPress core files once activated and notifies you if it finds anything suspicious. Defender then lists all the files it suspects are suspicious under Issues until the scan is finished. If you click the suspicious file’s dropdown menu, you’ll get detailed information about the issue, including the cause, error code, location, size, and date it was added. You can now choose to ignore the problem or uninstall it with a single click.
If you have a lot of problems, you can use the Bulk Update or Ignore options in the dropdown to deal with them all at once. A word of caution: Before removing and/or ignoring something, make sure your 100 percent sure it’s not harmful. If you’re uncertain or need guidance, our export is available for live support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Defender Pro will conduct additional scanning in the following areas:
- Plugins and Themes: Both plugins and themes will be scanned for identified vulnerabilities that have been previously recorded.
- Suspicious Code: This increases the scanning power by looking for suspicious PHP functions and code in all site files.
For Scan Types, you can change the settings to decide what types of scans you want to do and switch off a scan in addition to scanning. You can choose between all three scan styles if you have Defender Pro. You may also specify the maximum file size that should be included. Defender will not search any files that are larger than the required size (in Mb). Also, change the alerts so that you receive emails about problems as soon as they occur. To turn it on, all you have to do is flip a single switch. You can also easily tailor the emails for when a problem is discovered as well as when no issues are discovered.
With Defender Pro, you can also allow reporting. It helps you to submit problem reports at a particular time that you specify. You have the option of ordering on a regular, weekly, or monthly basis. You can also choose the day of the week and time of day you want your reports sent. Once reporting is available, Defender will notify you if it detects suspicious activity and will send you a report at the time you specify. Defender also allows you to receive alerts even though no problems are found.
- Use audit logging to keep track of changes.
You can use Audit Logging in Defender Pro to monitor and record any event that occurs on your website. You’ll get detailed updates on what’s happening behind the scenes (such as hacking attempts) so you can stay on top of any security risks. Defender will export all of the events to a CSV file and sort them by date.
Each event description has a dropdown with more details about it. Adjust the parameters to determine how long the events will be stored in our API. This feature can also be turned off at any time. This also involves scheduled reporting, which automatically sends you an email with a list of all activities on your WordPress account. You may add recipients and plan their delivery by frequency, weekday, and time of day. Audit logging is a perfect way to keep track of anything that happens on your site while also keeping it safe.
- Use a Firewall to Prevent Suspicious Behavior
The firewall in Defender contains the following features:
- Login Security
- 404 Detection
- IP Banning
- Logs
- Notifications
- Settings
- Reporting
Defender would immediately ban repeat offenders, making it easy for you to keep them safe. Aside from that, there are a number of features in Defender’s firewall that you can turn on for added protection. This is a quick rundown of what Defender’s firewall has to offer so you can make the most of it.
- Use WAF to deflect attacks
WAF is another function (Web Application Firewall). This is included in our hosting package. When used in conjunction with Defender Pro, it serves as the first line of defense, preventing troublemakers and bot attacks from ever reaching your website. It performs virtual patching of WordPress plugin, core, and theme vulnerabilities by filtering requests against our optimized managed ruleset, which covers the most common attacks (OWASP Top Ten). WPMU DEV’s the Hub can be used to support this.
You may also add IPs to the Allow list and Blocklist in the Hub. A User Agent Allow list, User Agent Blocklist, URL allow list, and an area to disable Rule IDs are also available.
- Use two-factor authentication to secure your logins.
When it comes to defending your website, 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) is a great extra layer of security. You can turn it on in Defender and tweak a lot of its features. You can select which user roles to allow two-factor authentication for once it’s been enabled. Users with those positions would have to log in using Google’s Authenticator software.
If a user is unable to access their phone, you can allow Lost Phone to send the password to their email address instead. You may also make all users’ authentication mandatory. There’s also a Custom Graphic option for the login area (Pro only). You can change the default settings for the Lost Phone email, get easy access to the Google Authenticator app update for Android and Apple, and see a list of your active two-factor authentication users. You can deactivate 2FA with a single click if you need to. This is a must for protection and to give users more choices for gaining access when they need it.
- Use Advanced Tools to Improve Site Security
For more advanced defense, Defender has a plethora of choices. The Mask Login Area is a significant protection measure. You can build a custom URL for users and administrators to use to log in. This makes it harder for hackers and bots to find your URL. You may also use this section to redirect traffic to a particular URL to prevent 404 errors.
Security Headers is another section in the Advanced Tools section. You can increase security by allowing security headers of various types, such as X-Frame Options, X-XSS-Protection, Strict Transport, and others. When you turn them on, they’ll show you any additional protection options that are available.
How to Install Defender WordPress Plugin?
How to Install Defender WordPress Plugin :
How to Secure a WordPress Website for Free?
How to Secure a WordPress Website for Free :
References
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