In 2013 a global brute-force attack began hitting WordPress installations on almost every host server in existence.

These attacks were caused by botnets (infected computer networks programmed to attack other sites with security vulnerabilities).

(WordPress is the world’s most used CMS making it a target for hacking attacks)

On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that over 162,000 WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Screenshot source: Blog Defender)

According to the Cnet report,

“With some old-fashioned trickery, hackers were able to get more than 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered Web sites to mount a distributed-denial-of-service attack against another Web site.”

(Source: cnet.com/news/ddos-attack-is-launched-from-162000-wordpress-sites)

As described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When attacks on WordPress sites are reported in the media, it’s natural for website owners to start questioning just how secure the WordPress platform is for running websites.

WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attempts by hackers. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure platform for building your business web presence?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should choose WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked every year … not just WordPress sites!

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and the situation is getting worse.

It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone attempts to hack into your site … regardless of the web platform you use!

Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but when before your website is targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”Isn’t Open Source Software An Open Invitation To Hacking?”

Some people will often try and argue that WordPress is not a secure platform for building and running websites or blogs because it’s an “open source” and freely available application.

Open source CMS platforms like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to use and anyone has access to the entire software code.

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can view the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain all of the code and go through it, searching for weaknesses and vulnerabilities they could exploit …

(It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website will be targeted by malicious hackers … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is a free application and hackers can easily access it and study the code looking for vulnerabilities and weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open software platform actually makes it a lot more secure in several ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of a huge community consisting of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(A global volunteer community of hundreds of web developers build and maintain. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves through the effort of hundreds of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from hundreds of web developers, designers and users who, at any one time, are focused on improving the code, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making WordPress safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by a global community of volunteer members. Image source: WordPress.org)

As soon as a security hole is discovered by developers or users, the WordPress developers are then made aware of it …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by an open community of users and developers. Image source: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system is very responsive and anybody can help contribute to the process of addressing vulnerabilities.

For example:

• If you notice bugs or security issues, you can report these by sending an email to security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WP plugin, you can also report these by sending an email to plugins@wordpress.org.

This is the reason why WordPress releases new security updates regularly, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs up-to-date …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to plug security exploits)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Platforms

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an open source technology like WordPress is that users benefit from a large community of developers who continually contribute to make the code more secure. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” CMS applications are typically developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, software maintenance, bug fixes and updates.

The WordPress CMS is free to download, use and modify, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the software. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management applications, there is valid research showing that the WordPress CMS is safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were found in each of these open source CMS platforms …

(National Vulnerability Database – Security Vulnerabilities IN CMS Applications. Screenshot: National Vulnerability Database)

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is easy to use and to keep up-to-date, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites run on WordPress had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

(BlogDefender.com – CMS Tests. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Should Not Be Blamed

If someone hacks into your WordPress site, don’t be too quick to blame the WordPress CMS platform.

According to security vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, most webmasters have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with compromises.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t know how their websites had been compromised by hackers after an attack …

(Many webmasters don’t even know how their sites were hacked. Image: StopBadware.org)

Of more immediate concern is the fact that most security-related problems come from site owners running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many WordPress sites are running on outdated versions. Screenshot image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

(WordPress Security Issues. Screenshot image: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust software applications, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security issues that may arise. Improving software security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, plugins, and themes updated to the latest version.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security has even led Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime in and reply to posts online.

In a blog post entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” posted on April 15, 2015, Matt wrote the following about WordPress security …

There’s a thread on Quora asking “I am powering a bank’s website using WordPress. What security measures should I take?” The answers have mostly been ignorant junk along the lines of “Oh NOES WP is INSECURE! let me take my money out of that bank”, so I wrote one myself, which I’ve copied below.

I agree there’s probably not a ton of benefit to having the online banking / billpay / etc portion of a bank’s website on WordPress, however there is no reason you couldn’t run the front-end and marketing side of the site on WordPress, and in fact you’d be leveraging WordPress’ strength as a content management platform that is flexible, customizable, and easy to update and maintain.

Matt then goes on to provide a couple of security tips, before stating the following …

For an example of a beautiful, responsive banking website built on WordPress, check out Gateway Bank of Mesa AZ. WordPress is also trusted to run sites for some of the largest and most security-conscious organizations in the world, including Facebook, SAP, Glenn Greenwald’s The Intercept, eBay, McAfee, Sophos, GNOME, Mozilla, MIT, Reuters, CNN, Google Ventures, NASA, and literally hundreds more.

As the most widely used CMS in the world, many people use and deploy the open source version of WordPress in a sub-optimal and insecure way, but the same could be said of Linux, Apache, MySQL, Node, Rails, Java, or any widely-used software. It is possible and actually not that hard to run WordPress in a way that is secure enough for a bank, government site, media site, or anything.

Millions of businesses around the world, including banks, global corporations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting WP Site Security

Other issues that can affect security include:

• No platform is completely safe from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The main weakness of all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security systems require regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting accounts are only as safe as the least secure website on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on that server can potentially become vulnerable to being hacked as well.

There’s No Reason Not To Use WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most other leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you implement basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) up-to-date, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use WordPress to drive your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks see this article:  WordPress Brute-Force Attack Prevention Measures

A vulnerable web site presents hackers with a resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress

If you are using older versions of WordPress remember to back up your site files and data before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Copy & Keep Your WordPress Web Site Protected With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

Article References

For more information on the above, refer to the sites below:

• ITProPortal.com
• National Vulnerability Database
• BlogDefender.com
• UpAndUpStudios.com
• StopBadware.org
• Sucuri.net
• WebDesign.org
• Quora.com
• Ma.tt

Hopefully, the above post has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress please click on links to visit other articles published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

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