In 2013 a worldwide brute force attack struck WordPress installations across almost every host server in existence.

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

(WordPress powers millions of websites and blogs worldwide, which makes it a natural target for hacking attacks)

On March 11, 2014, technology sites began reporting that 162,000 WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Screenshot image: 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 reported 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.

Whenever brute-force attacks on WordPress sites happen on such a wide scale, it’s natural for people to question if WordPress really is a safe application for running a business web presence.

WordPress often comes under attack by hackers. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure platform for building your business presence online?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and this is only going to get worse.

It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s inevitable that at some point in time someone will attempt to hack into your site … regardless of the web platform you use!

Since it’s not a matter of if, but when before your website is targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

How Vulnerable Are “Open Source” Software Programs?

Some people argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for running web sites because it’s “open source” and freely available software program.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can examine the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download all of the code and go through it, looking for security holes that can be exploited …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone tries to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is free to download and hackers can easily access it and study the code looking for security holes or weaknesses they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open application actually makes it a whole lot more secure in a number of ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a global community that consists of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(A huge volunteer community of thousands of web developers maintain and update. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress evolves because of the effort of thousands of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users dedicated to improving the code, fixing bugs and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by a large community of volunteers. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

The moment any security vulnerabilities are discovered by developers or users, these are immediately reported in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

(WordPress is continually being improved by thousands of committed individuals community of users and developers. Screenshot source: make.wordpress.org)

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

For example:

• If you come across bugs and security vulnerabilities, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WordPress plugin, you can report these by notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is the reason why the WordPress team releases new version updates regularly, and why you need to keep your site up-to-date …

(WordPress continually releases new updates to plug security vulnerabilities)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Platforms

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an ”open” platform like WordPress is that users benefit from a large community of developers who continually contribute to improve software security. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS application is built by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, support, bug fixes and software fixes.

WordPress is 100% free to download, use and modify, and thousands 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 you software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source Applications

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management applications, there is valid research to support the fact that WordPress is safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were found in each of these platforms during a certain period …

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

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites built with WordPress had less exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are less exposed to security threats than other CMS platform users. Image: BlogDefender.com)

It’s Easier To Blame Technology When Things Go Wrong

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,” published by security vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises, many webmasters have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t know how their sites had been compromised after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that most security-related issues arise from site owners running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many WordPress users have not updated their WP sites. Screenshot: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only between 25% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

(WordPress Security Issues. Screenshot: WebDesign.org)

Like many modern software platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to address new security risks that can arise. Improving security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, plugins, and themes updated to the latest version.

WordPress … Good Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation online about how secure WordPress is 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” 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, leading brands and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their presence online, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect WordPress Blog Security

Other factors 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 attack, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The main security vulnerability in all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting accounts are only as safe as the least safe site on the grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on your server are potentially vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Not To Choose WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most of the leading web platforms being used by businesses of all sizes to build their presence online. As long as you commit to implementing basic website security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their chosen technology platform) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there’s really no reason to avoid using WordPress to run your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

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

An unsecured web site provides malicious users with a resource for distributed attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers. Go here to learn more:

• Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin – Make Your Blog Hidden To Hackers & Botnets

If you are currently using an outdated version of WordPress make sure to back up your WordPress website fully before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore everything to its former settings.

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

References

The above facts were referenced from various 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, the above post has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about using the WP website publishing software please see other articles we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

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