In early 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to global-scale brute-force attacks.

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

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

In March 2014, many leading technology sites reported 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.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 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 people to start questioning if WordPress really is a safe software for building and running a business web presence.

WordPress is often the target of malicious attacks by hackers. 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 definitely consider choosing WordPress if you are concerned 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 sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and it’s only going to get worse.

It’s safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time … regardless of the web platform you use!

Since it’s not a matter of if, but when before someone will attempt to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Are “Open Source” Software Programs Really Safe?

Some people argue that WordPress cannot be a safe platform for running websites and blogs because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

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

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

While it’s true that WordPress is a free application and hackers can easily go through the code searching for security holes and vulnerabilities they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any program), 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 a large volunteer community that consists of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help to improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(A large community of hundreds of web developers build and maintain. Screenshot source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress evolves because of the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from hundreds of minds dedicated to improving the software, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making WordPress safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a global community of volunteer members. Image source: WordPress.org)

The moment that a security issue is discovered by developers or users, the WordPress core development team are then made aware of it …

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

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anybody can contribute to fixing the platform.

For example:

• If you find bugs and 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 one of the reasons why the WordPress team is constantly releasing new updates, and why you need to keep your sites and blogs regularly up-to-date …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to plug security weaknesses)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

Contrast the benefits of using an open source CMS technology like WordPress with proprietary platforms where often a small team with limited time and resources is responsible for developing, monitoring and maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will very quickly understand the value of using WordPress to power your business web presence on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, and hundreds 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 Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms)

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

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

(National Vulnerability Database – Security Vulnerabilities IN CMS Applications. Screenshot image: National Vulnerability Database)

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and keep up-to-date, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, WordPress sites had less exposure to risk …

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

Don’t Blame The Technology

If someone hacks into your WordPress site, don’t be quick to blame 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 website owners 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, over 60% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t know how their websites had been hacked after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern for WordPress users, is the fact that most security-related issues come from website owners running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. Screenshot image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by third-party developers …

(WP Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like many modern software platforms, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security threats that could arise. Improving software security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins updated to the latest version.

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 online discussion.

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 use WordPress to build their presence online, including banks, leading brands, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues That Can Affect WordPress Site Security

Other studies on issues that affect website security point to factors like:

• No platform is protected from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to using software that is out of date.
• The biggest vulnerability of all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security processes require constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting 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 every site on the server becomes vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Not To Choose WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you remember to implement basic security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) up-to-date, there’s no reason not to choose WordPress to drive your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

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

A vulnerable website offers malicious users with a platform for distributed attacks, spreading malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to botnet and hacker attacks. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Make Your Blogs Invisible To Bots And Hackers With Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are using older versions of WordPress remember to back up your site fully before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore everything to its previous settings.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, 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 backup process here: Backup, Duplicate And Protect Your WP Web Sites With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

References Used In This Article

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 post has given you a better understanding of problems 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 WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

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