In 2013 a global brute force attack hit WordPress installations across almost every WP hosting server in existence.

These attacks were caused by computer networks infected with malware and programmed to attack other computers (called “botnets”).

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

In March 2014, many technology sites began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.

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

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

Whenever brute-force attacks on WordPress sites happen on such a wide scale, it’s natural for website owners to ask just how secure WordPress is as a platform for running an online presence.

Powering millions of websites around the world makes WordPress an obvious target for attempted hacking attacks. 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 consider using WordPress if you are at all 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 scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation is getting worse.

You can safely assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time … regardless of the web platform your website has been built with!

Since it’s not a matter of if, but when before your website is targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Is “Open Source” Safe From Hacking?

Some people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for running websites because it’s an “open source” and freely available software.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can access the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily obtain all of the code and study every line in detail, searching for holes and weaknesses in the code that could be exploited …

(It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website is targeted by malicious hackers … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is a free program and hackers can easily go through the code looking for weaknesses and vulnerabilities they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open platform actually makes it a lot more secure in a number of ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a global volunteer community comprised of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a huge community of thousands of developers is responsible for keeping the core application code up-to-date. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves because of the effort of a global volunteer community working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from hundreds of minds who are dedicated to improving the application and making it safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by an open community of volunteer web developers. Screenshot source: make.wordpress.org)

As soon as security vulnerabilities are identified by developers or users, these are normally logged in user forums and addressed by the WordPress developers …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by thousands of committed individuals community of developers and users. Source: make.wordpress.org)

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is very responsive and anybody can contribute to the process of addressing vulnerabilities.

For example:

• If you come across bugs or a security issue, you can report these by sending an email to security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a 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 updates, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs frequently up-to-date …

(WordPress continually releases new updates to address any security weaknesses found)

WordPress Vs Proprietary 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 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 software fixes.

WordPress is 100% free to download, use and modify, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the platform. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users a free CMS application that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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 Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

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

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

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is easy to use and maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites run on WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

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

Don’t Blame WordPress

Whenever WordPress sites get attacked en masse, users shouldn’t be quick to place the blame on WordPress.

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“, most website owners have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or deal with compromises.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their sites had been hacked after an attack …

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

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

(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 a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are found in the WordPress CMS core, while 65% – 75% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by 3rd-party developers …

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

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

WordPress … Secure Enough For Banks To Use!

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

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

Other Factors Affecting Security

Other research on issues that play a role in WordPress security point to things such as:

• No platform is completely immune to hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using software that is out of date.
• The main risk in all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security systems need frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting servers are only as secure as the least safe site on the grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then every site on your server can potentially become vulnerable.

There Is No Reason To Avoid Choosing WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you commit to implementing basic website security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) up-to-date, there is really no reason to avoid using WordPress for your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  How To Protect Your WordPress Site From Brute-Force Attacks

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

• Prevent Hackers From Finding Your Blogs With Blog Defender Security Plugin

If you are currently using an older version of WordPress make sure you back up your WordPress website fully before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore things back to their former configuration.

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

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 information has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit other articles published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

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