In 2013 a worldwide brute force attack began hitting WordPress installations across virtually every web host in existence around the world.

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

(WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers)

On March 11, 2014, many technology sites reported that over 162,000 WordPress sites had been hacked.

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Image 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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When brute-force attacks on WordPress sites seem to increase, it’s natural for people to question if WordPress really is a safe platform for building and running an online presence.

Powering millions of sites around the world makes WordPress an obvious target for malicious attempts by hackers. 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 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 scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and it’s getting worse.

It’s probably 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 you use!

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

Are “Open Source” Applications Safe?

Some people will often try and argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running websites or blogs because its open source code means that anyone can view how the software code works.

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

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

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before a malicious user 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 weaknesses or vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in a number of ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of a large volunteer community that consists of hundreds of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a community of volunteers worldwide is responsible for keeping the core application updated. Source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves through the effort of thousands of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users who, at any one time, are focused on improving the application and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(WordPress is built by a global community of users. Image: make.wordpress.org)

The moment that any security issue is discovered by developers or users, these are normally noted in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core development team …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anybody can contribute to improving the platform.

For example:

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

This is one of the reasons why the core development team is constantly releasing new version updates, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress site regularly updated …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS 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 improve software security. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS platform is normally built 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 100% 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 a completely free application that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source Applications

(CMS Platforms)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, 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 the number of security vulnerabilities found in popular open source platforms during a given period …

(WordPress experiences fewer security vulnerabilities than other leading CMS applications. Screenshot source: National Vulnerability Database)

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites run on WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are less exposed to security risks than other CMS platform users. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Is Not At Fault

If someone hacks into 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“, many website owners have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or deal with web security compromises.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their sites had been compromised after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern, however, is the fact that most security problems seem to be related to site owners running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(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 25% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress CMS core, while 65% – 75% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

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

Like all robust web applications, WordPress is updated regularly to address new security threats that can arise. Improving software security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress.

WordPress … Secure Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation about WordPress security has even caused the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime into the debate.

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 use WordPress to build their presence online, including banks, global corporations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect Blog Security

Other areas that can affect WP blog security include issues like:

• No platform is protected from hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main risk of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes need to be constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Hosting setup. For example, sites on shared hosting are only as secure as the least secure site on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on your server can potentially become vulnerable.

There’s No Reason Not To Choose WordPress

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

WordPress Security – Tips

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

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

• Prevent Bots And Hackers From Attacking Your WordPress Blogs

If you are using older WordPress versions remember to make a complete backup before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore everything to its previous settings.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Back Up, Clone And Protect Your WP Website With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

References Used In This Article

The above statistics 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 article has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business web site please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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