In April 2013 a worldwide brute-force attack hit 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 with security vulnerabilities).

(WordPress is often the target of malicious attacks by hackers)

On March 11, 2014, many leading technology sites reported that over 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.

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

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 cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to question if WordPress really is a safe platform for running their sites.

WordPress powers millions of sites worldwide, which makes it a natural target for hacking. 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 have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and this is getting worse.

You can safely assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone attempts to hack into your site … regardless of the web platform you use!

Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone will try to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”How Can Open Source Software Programs Be Secured?”

Many people will often try and argue that WordPress should not be used for running a business online because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can access the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily get hold of the code and study every single line in great detail, searching for holes and weaknesses that can be exploited …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before a malicious user will attempt to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is a free program and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for security holes or vulnerabilities they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open software platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in a number of ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a huge volunteer community comprised 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 …

(A huge volunteer community build and maintain. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

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

(WordPress is built and maintained by a global community of users. Image source: WordPress.org)

As soon as a security weakness is identified by developers or users, the WordPress core development team are then notified …

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

The WordPress community support system is solid and formidable and anyone can help contribute to the process of getting bugs fixed.

For example:

• If you find 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 the reason why WordPress is constantly releasing new version updates, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs regularly updated …

(WordPress continually releases new updates to plug security vulnerabilities)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Applications

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, proprietary or “closed-source” CMS applications are typically 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 free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the software. Can a proprietary CMS 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 Applications

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities found in popular CMS platforms …

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

Other studies also indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to keep up-to-date, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

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

WordPress Is Not To Blame

When WordPress sites are attacked en masse, users shouldn’t be too quick to place the blame on WordPress.

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 webmasters are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

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

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that most security-related issues come from site owners running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many WordPress users have not updated their sites. Screenshot image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only around between 20% – 30% 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 developed externally for WordPress …

(WP Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like many web platforms, WordPress is regularly updated in order to address new security vulnerabilities that could arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, plugins, and themes up-to-date.

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Are Using It!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is 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” published 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, including banks, global corporations and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers.

Other Factors Affecting WordPress Site Security

Other factors that can affect website security include areas like:

• No platform is completely protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The main weakness in all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes require regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Hosting setup. For example, websites on shared hosting accounts are only as safe as the least secure site on the hosting grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on the server become vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Not To Use WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most other leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you commit to implementing basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) up-to-date, there is really no reason not to choose WordPress to power your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  WordPress Brute Force Attack Prevention Measures

A compromised web site provides malicious users with a valuable platform to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and botnets. Learn more about it here:

• Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin – Make Your Web Sites Invisible To Hackers And Bots

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

If you don’t want to back up your files manually, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate & Keep Your WordPress Websites And Blogs Protected With Backup Creator WordPress 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, the above article has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using the WP CMS software please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

***