In April 2013 a worldwide brute force attack began hitting WordPress installations on almost every host server in existence around the world.

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

(Powering millions of sites around the world makes WordPress a target for hacking attacks)

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

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Screenshot 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)

As described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When attacks on WordPress sites increase in frequency, it’s natural for people to start questioning if WordPress really is a safe application for building and running their sites.

WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system which makes it a natural target for hackers. But do you really 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 use WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and it’s only going to get 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 your website has been built with!

Since it’s no longer 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?

Is “Open Source” Safe?

Some people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running a business online because it is a freely available open source application.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can access the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily get hold of the code and study all of it in detail, looking for weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the code that could be exploited …

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

While it’s true that WordPress is a free application and hackers can easily access it and study the code looking for holes and weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in several ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by a large community consisting of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(The WordPress software platform is built, maintained and updated by a huge community of developers. Image: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves through the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from hundreds of individuals committed to improving the software, identifying and fixing security issues and making WordPress safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by a large community of volunteer members. Screenshot image: WordPress.org)

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

(WordPress is continually being improved by a global community community of developers and users. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is solid and formidable and anyone can help contribute to the process of fixing security issues.

For example:

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

This is the reason why the core development team releases new updates regularly, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress site updated and maintained …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to address security vulnerabilities)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

Contrast what we have just discussed above with proprietary CMS technologies where often the responsibility for improving software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a much smaller team of developers with limited resources and you will quickly realize the value of using WordPress to power your websites and blogs on a secure platform.

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 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 CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, there is valid research to support the fact that the WordPress CMS is actually safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities discovered in each of these CMS platforms …

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

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites run on WordPress had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are less exposed to vulnerabilities than other CMS platform users. Image: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Is Not At Fault

When WordPress sites get subjected to brute-force attacks, you shouldn’t be quick to place the blame on the WordPress CMS platform.

According to a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises called StopBadware and security vendor Commtouch in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, many webmasters have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with compromises.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t know how their websites had been compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

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

(Many WordPress sites are running on outdated versions. Image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only between 25% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress CMS core, while 70% – 80% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

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

Like many software applications, WordPress is regularly updated to deal with new security issues that may arise. Improving software security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins up-to-date.

WordPress Is Secure – Just Ask Any Bank That Uses It!

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

In a blog post entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” posted on April 15, 2015, Matt wrote the following about WordPress …

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

Other Issues Affecting WordPress Site Security

Other studies on issues that play a role in website security point to areas like:

• No platform is protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main 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. Security processes need frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting accounts are only as safe as the least secure website on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then all sites on your server can potentially become vulnerable to hacking also.

There Is No Reason Not To Choose WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you implement basic website security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) up-to-date, there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t choose WordPress to run your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks see this article:  Ten Security Measures That Can Help Prevent Brute Force Attacks On Your WordPress Site

A vulnerable site presents hackers with a valuable resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and use your website to defraud online users. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• Blog Defender – How To Make Your Site Unseen By Bots & Hackers

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version make sure to back up everything before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Backup, Duplicate And Keep Your WordPress Web Sites Protected With Backup Creator WP 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, this post has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business website please see other posts published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles or tutorials are published.

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