In early 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to a global-scale brute-force attack.

These attacks were caused by infected computer networks programmed to attack other vulnerable sites, also commonly known as “botnets”.

(Powering millions of websites around the world makes WordPress an obvious target for attempted attacks by malicious users)

In March 2014, many leading technology sites began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.

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

According to security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When worldwide brute force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to ask just how safe and secure WordPress is as an application for running websites.

Being the world’s most used content management system makes WordPress a target for hacking. But do you need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure web platform?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and it’s getting worse.

It’s probably safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone does attempt 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?

The “Open Source” Software Argument

Many people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for running web sites because it’s an “open source” and freely available software application.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can access the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download the code and study every line in detail, looking for security vulnerabilities they could exploit …

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

While it’s true that WordPress is a free application and hackers can easily go through the code looking for security weaknesses or vulnerabilities they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in many ways.

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

(A large volunteer community build, maintain and update. Screenshot image: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves through the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users who are dedicated to improving the software, fixing bugs and making WordPress safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by a global community of contributors. Screenshot: make.wordpress.org)

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

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

The WordPress community support system is solid and formidable and anybody can contribute to the process of addressing vulnerabilities.

For example:

• If you find bugs or a security vulnerability, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a WP plugin, you can report these by emailing plugins@wordpress.org.

This is the reason why the WordPress community releases new version updates regularly, and why you continually need to keep your site regularly maintained …

(WordPress continually releases new updates to address security holes)

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

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 make the software more secure. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” software applications are typically built by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, support, bug fixes and updates.

The WordPress CMS is free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the software. Can a proprietary technology 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 CMS 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 showing that WordPress is safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in popular open source platforms during a given period …

(National Vulnerability Database – Security Vulnerabilities IN CMS Platforms. Source: National Vulnerability Database)

Other studies also show that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites built with WordPress had less exposure to risk …

(Blog Defender – CMS Tests. Screenshot source: 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 place the blame on WordPress.

According to security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, a large number of webmasters are not fully aware of the 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 know how their sites were compromised after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security-related problems come from site owners not upgrading their CMS software to the latest version …

(Many security issues come from sites running outdated WordPress versions. Screenshot: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only around between 20% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are actually found in the WordPress core software, while 70% – 75% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

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

Like all robust web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security vulnerabilities that could arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress.

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Are Using It!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is has even caused Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime into the online discussion.

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 use WordPress to build their web presence, including banks, large organizations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues That Can Affect Site Security

Other factors that can affect WP security include areas such as:

• No platform is completely protected from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using software that is out of date.
• The biggest risk of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security processes need to be constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Hosting setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting servers are only as safe as the least safe site on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on that server are potentially vulnerable.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Using 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 is really no reason why you shouldn’t choose WordPress for your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

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

An unsecured web site presents hackers with a valuable resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and bots. Go here to learn more:

• Prevent Malicious Intrusions On Your WP Blog By Bots & Hackers

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version remember to back up your files 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 back up your data manually, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Backup, Copy & Protect Your WP Sites 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, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about the security benefits of using the WordPress CMS platform please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles or tutorials are published.

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