Recently, the company behind Jetpack, Automattic, released an update to their popular plugin. There was some important features and changes to it that we’ll discuss here in more detail. Please see their website for more information on Jetpack 3.4.
Brute Protect
As of August, Automattic purchased Brute Protect to incorporate directly into Jetpack. Now, they’ve made it easier than ever to protect your wp-admin from brute force login attempts referred to as botnet attacks. These attacks have been increasing in their frequency as WordPress has gained popularity.
Now, you can enable it and whitelist your IPs quickly. within the Jetpack dashboard.
If you already have Brute Protect installed, you can remove it since it’s fully incorporated within Jetpack.
Brute Protect is important since it catches distributed brute force attempts as it monitors thousands of sites actively. As multiple sites are being attacked by the same IP address Brute Protect become aware quickly and blocks the attacks across their network of plugin user prior to most users even noticing.
Jumpstart
Jumpstart is a new set of modules that are most popular within Jetpack. By allowing the new user of Jetpack to quickly enable the most popular modules, you can get the maximum benefits from Jetpack quickly with only a few clicks. Some of the featured modules include Photon (an image CDN), single sign on (allows for one login across multiple instances), and Carousel (convert and gallery within WordPress you have embedded into posts are pages to a full-screen experience).
Centralizing the User Experience
Jetpack wants to bridge the gap between self hosted WordPress sites and WordPress.com. As they advance this concept within Jetpack you’ll be able to do things in wordpress.com and affect your self hosted sites as well. The first good instance is IP whitelisting. You’ll never have to worry about getting blocking trying to login to your WordPress sites. You’ll be able to whitelist your IP adress in WordPress.com and see the effects across all your Jetpack enabled websites.
