In April 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to global-scale brute force attacks.

These attacks were caused by computers infected with viruses and programmed to attack other vulnerable computers (called “botnets”).

(WordPress powers millions of sites around the world, which makes it a natural target for hacking attacks)

On March 11, 2014, many leading technology sites reported that 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Source: BlogDefender website)

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 WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever global attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to ask just how secure WordPress is as a software for running a business web presence.

WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers, due to its popularity. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as a secure web platform?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should definitely consider using WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation is getting worse.

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

Since it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone attempts to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Are “Open Source” Applications Really Safe?

Many people argue that WordPress is not a secure platform for building and running web sites because it is a freely available open source application.

Open source CMS programs like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to use and anyone has access to the underlying code.

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily obtain all of the code and go through every line, looking for vulnerabilities that could be exploited …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website will be targeted by hackers … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is free to download and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for holes and vulnerabilities that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open platform actually makes it more secure in many ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a huge volunteer community that consists of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a huge volunteer community of hundreds of developers is responsible for keeping the code updated. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress evolves because of the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from hundreds of minds who are dedicated to improving the application and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by a large community of contributors. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

As soon as any security holes are identified by developers or users, these are normally recorded in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core development team …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anyone can contribute to the process of getting vulnerabilities plugged.

For example:

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

This is the reason why the core development team is constantly releasing new updates, and why you continually need to keep your sites and blogs updated …

(WordPress continually releases new updates to plug security exploits)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

Contrast the benefits of using an open source CMS technology like WordPress with proprietary CMS platforms where often the responsibility for improving software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a small team of developers with limited resources and you will quickly realize the security benefits of using WordPress to run your website or blog on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, use and modify, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the software. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities found in each of these platforms during a certain period …

(WordPress experiences less security vulnerabilities than other leading CMS applications. Source: National Vulnerability Database)

Other research shows that, because WordPress is easy to use and to keep updated, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, WordPress sites had fewer exposure to risk …

(BlogDefender.com – CMS Tests. Source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame The WordPress CMS

If someone compromises the security of your WordPress site, don’t be too quick to blame the WordPress CMS platform.

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

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their sites were compromised after an attack …

(Most webmasters don’t know how their sites get hacked. Screenshot: StopBadware.org)

Of immediate concern is the fact that most security-related problems result from website owners running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated version of WordPress. Image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by 3rd-party developers …

(WP Security Issues. Image source: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust software applications, WordPress is regularly updated in order 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 software, themes, and plugins up-to-date.

WordPress … Good Enough For Banks To Use!

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

In an article entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” published 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 choose WordPress to build their presence online, including banks, global corporations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect WP Security

Other research on issues that affect WordPress security point to areas such as:

• No platform is protected from hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The main threat of all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security systems need frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Hosting setup. For example, websites on shared hosting accounts are only as secure as the least secure website on the grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then every site on your shared server becomes vulnerable.

There’s No Reason Not To Use WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you commit to implementing basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) updated, there’s no reason not to use WordPress for your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  Preventing WordPress From Brute-Force Attacks

A compromised website presents malicious users with a valuable platform to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers. Go here to learn more:

• How To Make Your Websites Unseen By Bots And Hackers With Blog Defender

If you are currently using an older WordPress version make sure you back up everything before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore everything to its former state.

If you don’t want to back up your files manually, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Back Up, Copy And Keep Your WP Site Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

References

The above facts were referenced from various online sources, including those listed below:

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

Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit other articles published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles or tutorials are published.

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