In April 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to a global-scale brute-force attack.

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

(WordPress is frequently the target of attacks by hackers)

On March 11, 2014, technology sites began reporting that over 160,000+ WordPress-powered websites 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)

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

Whenever attacks on WordPress sites are reported in the media, it’s natural for website owners to start questioning if WordPress really is a safe platform for running websites.

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

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and it’s only going to get worse.

You can safely 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 your website will be targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

The “Open Source” Software Argument

Some people will often argue that WordPress is not a secure platform for building and running websites because it’s a freely available open source software program.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If everyone can view the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily get hold of all of the code and go through every single line in great detail, looking for security vulnerabilities in the code that could 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 a free application and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for security vulnerabilities or weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open application actually makes it a whole lot more secure in many ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by a huge community comprised of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(WordPress is built, maintained and updated by an open community of hundreds of developers. Screenshot source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves through the effort of a global community working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from hundreds of web developers, designers and users who, at any one time, are focused on improving the application, identifying and fixing security holes and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(WordPress is built by a large community of WordPress users. Source: WordPress.org)

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

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

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anyone can contribute to securing the platform.

For example:

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

This is the reason why the core development team is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you continually need to keep your sites and blogs regularly up-to-date …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to address security exploits)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

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 make the code more secure. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” software application would normally be developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, maintenance services, bug fixes and software fixes.

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the software. 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 Applications

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in popular open source platforms during a given period …

(WordPress experiences less security vulnerabilities than other CMS applications. Image 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 issues, WordPress sites had less exposure to risk …

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

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

Whenever WordPress sites get attacked, don’t be too quick to blame WordPress.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, most website owners have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with compromises.

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t know how their sites had been compromised after an attack …

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

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

(Many WordPress sites are running on outdated versions. Screenshot 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 third-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

(WP Security Issues. Screenshot: WebDesign.org)

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

WordPress … Good Enough For Banks To Use!

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

In an article 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, including banks, large organizations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues Affecting WP Security

Other areas that can affect security include factors like:

• No platform is protected from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The biggest threat in all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security processes need to be frequently monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting servers are only as secure as the least safe website on the hosting grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on that server become vulnerable.

There Is No Reason To Avoid Using WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most of the leading web platforms being used by businesses of all sizes to build their presence online. As long as you continue to implement basic website security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly updated, there is no reason why you should not choose WordPress.

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 site presents hackers with a valuable platform for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Prevent Bots & Hackers From Finding Your Site

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version remember to back up everything before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to back up your data manually, there are a number of plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Copy And Keep Your WP Website Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

Article 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 problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using the WP web site management software please click on links to visit other posts published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

***