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

These attacks were caused by infected computer networks programmed to attack other vulnerable installations (called “botnets”).

(WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers, due to its popularity)

In March 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that over 162,000 WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 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 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.

When global brute-force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to question just how safe and secure WordPress is as a platform for running websites.

WordPress is the world’s most used content management system making it a natural target for hacker attacks. But should you really be concerned about WordPress as a secure web platform?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

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

It’s safe to assume that if you haven’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 your website has been built with!

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

Are “Open Source” Software Programs Safe?

Some people argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for building and running a business online because it is “open source” and freely available application.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can view the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download all of the code and study every single line, searching for security vulnerabilities in the code that could be exploited …

(It’s not a matter of if, but when before a malicious user will attempt to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

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

This is because WordPress has the support of an open volunteer community comprised of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(WordPress is built, maintained and updated by an open community of web developers. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of a global volunteer community working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from hundreds of minds who are dedicated to improving the application, fixing bugs and making it safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by a global community of users. Screenshot: make.wordpress.org)

As soon as security problems are discovered by developers or users, these are then noted in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core development team …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anybody can help contribute to the process of addressing vulnerabilities.

For example:

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

This is one of the reasons why the WordPress community releases new updates regularly, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs up-to-date …

(WordPress continually releases new updates to plug any security exploits found)

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS 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 make the code more secure. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS platform is normally developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, support, bug fixes and software fixes.

The WordPress CMS is free to download, modify and use, and hundreds 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 a completely free CMS software that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were found in popular CMS platforms …

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

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is easy to use and to update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

(WordPress has a significant degree of less exposure to risk than other CMS applications. Image: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame The Platform

When WordPress sites are attacked, you shouldn’t be too quick to place the blame on the WordPress CMS platform.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” which is published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, most website owners have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with compromises.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their sites were hacked after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern for WordPress users, is the fact that many security problems seem to be related to users running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many WordPress users have not upgraded their WP software. Screenshot image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only around between 25% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are actually found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

(WordPress Security Issues. Screenshot: WebDesign.org)

Like many web platforms, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security issues that may arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress software, plugins, themes, etc..

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

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

In a post 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 use WordPress to build their websites, including banks, large organizations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect Website Security

Other research on issues that play a role in WordPress security point to things like:

• No platform is immune to hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The main vulnerability of all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security systems need regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Hosting server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting accounts are only as safe as the least safe site on the grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on that server can potentially become vulnerable to hacking also.

There Is No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Use WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you commit to implementing basic web security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their chosen technology platform) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) up-to-date, there’s really no reason not to use WordPress.

WordPress Security – 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 website presents hackers with a valuable resource for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots. Learn more about it here:

• How To Make Your Web Site Unseen By Hackers & Botnets With Blog Defender Security Plugin

If you are using older WordPress versions remember to back up everything before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Backup, Duplicate And Protect Your WordPress Web Sites With Backup Creator WP Plugin

References Used In This Article

For more information on the above, see the following sources:

• 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 web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about using the WP CMS platform please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles or tutorials are published.

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