{"id":195161,"date":"2021-02-18T06:14:42","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T06:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/premium.wpmudev.org\/blog\/?p=195161"},"modified":"2021-02-22T01:57:55","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T01:57:55","slug":"defender-cleans-5000-malware-hacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/defender-cleans-5000-malware-hacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Web Developer Ditches $500 Security Fix And Cleans Up Over 5,000 Malware Hacks Using Defender"},"content":{"rendered":"

When New Now Creative had their site hacked, they paid a security company hundreds of dollars to fix it.\u00a0 This time around, when their client’s site got infected with malware, they simply used Defender to get rid of 5000+ hacks.<\/p>\n

Getting your own site hacked when you’re supposed to be the expert is not only embarrassing, it’s every website owner’s nightmare!<\/p>\n

This is what happened to Victoria Gabaldon, co-founder of New Now Creative Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Nino
Nino and his wife Victoria run the New Now Creative Branding & Design Agency.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“My own site got hacked…a very expensive fix!”<\/h2>\n

Years ago, Victoria’s own site got hacked and she hired a well-known security company for a very expensive fix.<\/p>\n

Last year, while visiting an old client’s site, she was horrified to discover that her client’s site had been hacked.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot
The screenshot Victoria took of her client’s malware-infected site.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Google’s automated malware-detection system had placed a warning page<\/a> on the site requiring removal of the malware and securing the site before they would restore it on their search results.<\/p>\n

Victoria immediately let her client know that the site was infected with malware and contacted a specialist in malware removal for a quote.<\/p>\n

\"Malware
The malware removal quote.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The malware removal company quoted Victoria $499.99 per year to secure the site or $49.99 per month for emergency hack repair and blacklist removal.<\/p>\n

“WPMUDEV made me look like THE superhero!”<\/h2>\n

Victoria’s client was worried about the cost. While searching for cheaper and effective alternatives, Victoria came across Defender<\/a>, WPMU DEV’s security and malware removal plugin.<\/p>\n

As she recalls, “I must have come across something from WPMUDEV can’t recall what it was exactly….but I do remember getting on with chat and them telling me that the plugin COULD clean up a site….needless to say I was quite skeptical but knew my client couldn’t afford what the other places were asking, so I told them I would do it at a highly discounted rate and they agreed to let me try since this was my first stab at it ;} gratefully they knew me well enough to trust me for the ride…”<\/p>\n

In Victoria’s own words, here’s what she did next:<\/p>\n

“Knowing I could use Defender to remove malicious code, I installed Defender Pro and began removing the 5000+ issues. I even jumped on live chat a few times for reassurance that I was doing it right. I was able to fix it with Defender Pro and get it all cleaned up and resubmitted to Google and clients were SOOOO thankful! WPMUDEV made me look like THE superhero! I even managed to switch to WPMU DEV hosting! Thanks to you all!”<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m most impressed by how good it is at removing malware.”<\/h2>\n

This experience not only taught Victoria how to better take care of all her clients’ sites’ security and prevent issues in the future, but she now uses Defender to provide a service fixing hacked websites.<\/p>\n

\"Woman
New Now Creative removed over 5000 malware infections from this site and uses Defender to fix client’s hacked websites.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When asked what features of Defender she uses and relies on the most, here’s what she said:<\/p>\n

“Just about everything it offers! On most sites, I use the firewall, masked login area, and 2FA. But I\u2019m most impressed by how good it is at removing malware.”<\/p>\n

Web Security Is an Ongoing Concern<\/h2>\n

One last thing I asked Victoria to clarify, was the cost of fixing her client’s site had she gone with the original quote, as I checked that security company’s website and was a little confused by their pricing model.<\/p>\n

Here’s her response:<\/p>\n

“It is $49.99\/month so technically, yes, would have got it fixed for $49.99 and then could have canceled the subscription, but then there would be no further security on the site unless they pay that monthly or the $499 for the year which we all found to be completely outrageous! Especially since WPMU DEV has much superior security and pricing!”<\/p>\n

We’d like to thank Victoria for sharing her experience with us.<\/p>\n

In addition to web\/blog design, web development, website management, and training, Victoria, Nino, and her team of professionals\u00a0provide a full range of services helping individuals, businesses, and organizations from offline start-up to online marketing, and assisting clients in all areas of creative design, marketing strategy, and branding.<\/p>\n

For more details, contact Victoria and her team at New Now Creative.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DOTW
An excerpt from Victoria Gabaldon’s comments left on our members’ discussion forum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Download Defender for free<\/a> or become a WPMU DEV member with our free trial<\/a> and get access to Defender Pro and all of our plugins, plus secure managed WordPress hosting, 24\/7 live chat support, and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When New Now Creative had their site hacked, they paid a security company hundreds of dollars to fix it.\u00a0 This time around, when their client’s site got infected with malware, they simply used Defender to get rid of 5000+ hacks. Getting your own site hacked when you’re supposed to be the expert is not only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":774618,"featured_media":195355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"blog_reading_time":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_tutorials_categories":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,11260],"tags":[],"tutorials_categories":[],"class_list":["post-195161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorials","category-wpmu-dev-products"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/774618"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195161"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202735,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195161\/revisions\/202735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195161"},{"taxonomy":"tutorials_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorials_categories?post=195161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}