In 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to worldwide brute force attacks.

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

(Being the world’s most used content management system makes WordPress a target for hacking attempts)

In March 2014, many leading technology sites began reporting 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: 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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to start questioning if WordPress really is a secure software for building and running a business web presence.

WordPress powers millions of websites worldwide, making it an obvious target for hacking attempts. But should you 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 have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and this 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 not a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone tries to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

How Vulnerable Are “Open Source” Software Programs?

Many people will often try to argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running websites and blogs because it is a freely available open source software program.

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain the code and go through it in great detail, searching for weaknesses and vulnerabilities that they could exploit …

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

While it’s true that WordPress is free and hackers can easily go through the code searching for weaknesses or vulnerabilities that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source software platform actually makes it more secure in many ways.

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

(A huge community of hundreds of developers worldwide build, maintain and update. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of a huge community working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from hundreds of minds dedicated to improving the software, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making WordPress safer for every user …

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

As soon as security issues are discovered by developers or users, these are then logged in user forums and addressed by the WordPress developers …

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

The WordPress community support system is very responsive and anyone can contribute to the process of addressing security issues.

For example:

• If you notice bugs and a security exploit, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WP plugin, you can report these by notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is why the WordPress team is constantly releasing new updates, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs frequently up-to-date …

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

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

Contrast the benefits of using an open source CMS platform like WordPress with proprietary CMS technologies where often a much smaller team with limited resources is responsible for monitoring and improving software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will very quickly realize the security benefits of using WordPress to run your websites and blogs on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is free to download, use and modify, and thousands 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 Platforms

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities discovered in popular 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 to update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

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

Don’t Blame The WordPress CMS

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

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 know how their sites get hacked. Screenshot source: StopBadware.org)

Of more immediate concern for WordPress users, however, is the fact that most security-related issues come from users running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. Image source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only between 20% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress core software, while 70% – 85% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

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

Like many software applications, WordPress is regularly updated in order to deal with new security threats that may arise. Improving software security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins updated to the latest version.

WordPress … Good Enough For Banks To Use!

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

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

Other Areas Affecting WP Site Security

Other factors that can affect security include areas like:

• No platform is protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to using software that is out of date.
• The biggest weakness in all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security systems need constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Hosting setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting accounts are only as safe as the least secure website on the hosting grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on your server can potentially become vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Choose WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you commit to implementing basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) up-to-date, there’s really no reason not to choose WordPress.

WordPress Security – Practical 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 site offers hackers with a platform for distributed attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress Websites makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• Prevent Malicious Intrusions On Your WordPress Websites From Hackers And Botnets

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

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Back Up, Copy & Keep Your WP Site Protected With Backup Creator WP Plugin

References

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 issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To learn more about using WordPress please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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