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

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

(Powering millions of sites around the world makes WordPress an obvious target for hackers)

On March 11, 2014, many technology sites began reporting that 160,000+ legitimate WordPress sites had been hacked.

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Image source: BlogDefender site)

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 web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When worldwide brute force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to start asking just how secure WordPress is as a software for running their websites.

WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers. But should you be concerned about WordPress as being a secure platform for building your business website?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some 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 rising, and things are only going to get 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 when before your website is targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”How Can Open Source Software Be Secured?”

Some people will often try to argue that WordPress cannot be a secure platform for running web sites because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

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

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

While it’s true that WordPress is free and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for holes and weaknesses that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source application actually makes it more secure in several ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by an open community of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(WordPress is built, maintained and updated by a large community of developers around the world. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of a huge community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from thousands of individuals who, at any one time, are focused on improving the software, fixing bugs and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by an open community of contributors. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

As soon as any security vulnerability is identified by developers or users, the WordPress development team are then made aware of it …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by a global community community of users and web developers. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

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

For example:

• If you discover bugs or a security hole, you can report these by emailing security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a WordPress plugin, you can also report these by sending an email to plugins@wordpress.org.

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

(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to address any security issues found)

WordPress CMS 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 improve code security. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS application is normally built by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, software maintenance, bug fixes and software fixes.

WordPress is free to download, use and modify, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the technology. Can a proprietary CMS 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 CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in each of these open source CMS platforms …

(National Vulnerability Database – Security Vulnerabilities IN CMS Applications. 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 a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

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

WordPress Is Not Always To Blame

When WordPress sites get attacked, you shouldn’t be 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 vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises, a large number of webmasters have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with security compromises.

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

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

Of more immediate concern is the fact that many security-related problems arise from website owners running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

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

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while 65% – 75% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

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

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

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Are Using It!

The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security has even caused Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime in and reply to posts online.

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, including banks, global corporations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors Affecting Security

Other factors that can affect security include things like:

• No platform is completely safe from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to outdated software.
• The biggest security threat of all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes require constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting are only as secure as the least secure website on the hosting grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on that server becomes vulnerable.

There Is No Reason To Avoid Using WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you commit to implementing basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) updated, there is really no reason to avoid using WordPress.

WordPress Security – Useful 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 blog offers malicious users with a valuable platform to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers. Go here to learn more:

• How To Prevent Malicious Cyberattacks On Your WP Websites From Hackers With Blog Defender Security Plugin

If you are currently using an outdated version of WordPress make sure you back up your site before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore your site to its previous settings.

If you don’t want to back up your files manually, there are many plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Duplicate And Protect Your WordPress Web Sites With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

References Used In This Article

The statistics quoted in this article 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, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better business results online. To learn more about the security benefits of using the WP platform please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

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