In early 2013 a worldwide brute force attack struck WordPress installations across almost every web host in existence around the world.

These attacks were caused by botnets (networks of infected computers programmed to attack other installations with security vulnerabilities).

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

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

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

According to leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When global attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to question just how safe and secure WordPress is as a software for running their websites.

WordPress powers millions of websites around the world, which makes it a natural target for hackers. But should you really 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 consider using WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some 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 this is 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 you use!

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

”Isn’t Open Source Software Extremely Vulnerable?”

Some people will often try and argue that WordPress cannot be a secure platform for running a website or blog because it’s “open source” and freely available application.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily get hold of all of the code and go through all of it in detail, looking for security holes in the code that they can 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 access it and study the code searching for security weaknesses or vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source platform actually makes it more secure in many ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a large community comprised of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, the software platform is built, maintained and updated by a huge community of hundreds of web developers around the world. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves largely through the effort of a huge community working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from hundreds of minds committed to improving the code, fixing bugs and making WordPress safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by a large community of users. Screenshot: make.wordpress.org)

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

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

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

For example:

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

This is one of the reasons why WordPress releases new version updates so often, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs frequently updated …

(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to plug security issues)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Applications

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an open source platform like WordPress is that users benefit from a large community of developers who continually contribute to improve software security. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” software applications are typically developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, maintenance services, bug fixes and updates.

WordPress is free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the technology. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you a completely free CMS platform that you can download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS 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 how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in each of these platforms during a certain period …

(WordPress experiences less security vulnerabilities than other CMS platforms. Image: National Vulnerability Database)

Other research shows that, because WordPress is easy to use and to update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites run on WordPress had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are not as exposed to threats as other CMS platform users. Source: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Is Not At Fault

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

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” which is published by a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises called StopBadware and security vendor Commtouch, most webmasters are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to 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 were compromised after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern for WordPress users, is the fact that most security-related issues result from users forgetting to update their WordPress software to a newer version …

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated version of WordPress. Image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only around between 20% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

(WP Security Issues. Screenshot: WebDesign.org)

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

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

The amount of misinformation about WordPress security 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” 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 choose WordPress to build their presence online, including banks, global corporations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect Security

Other research on issues that affect 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 risk in all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security systems require frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting servers are only as secure as the least secure website on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on that shared server becomes vulnerable.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Choosing 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 themes, plugins, etc.) regularly updated, there’s no reason why you should not use WordPress to drive your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks see this article:  10 Ways To Prevent Brute Force Attacks On Your WordPress Site

A vulnerable website presents hackers with a resource for launching denial of service attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and bots. Learn more about it here:

• Prevent Malicious Cyber-Attacks On Your WordPress Website From Botnets And Hackers With Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are currently using an older version of WordPress make sure to make a backup before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore everything to its former settings.

If you don’t want to back up your files manually, there are a number of free and paid plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Back Up, Clone And Keep Your WordPress Site Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

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

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