In 2013 a worldwide brute force attack hit WordPress installations on almost every WP hosting server in existence around the world.

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

(Powering millions of sites around the world makes WordPress a target for hackers)

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

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Image: 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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever attacks on WordPress sites are reported in the media, it’s natural for people to start asking if WordPress really is a safe platform for building and running a business web presence.

WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attacks by hackers. But should you be concerned about WordPress as a secure web platform?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should definitely choose WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and things are getting worse.

You can safely assume that if your website or blog hasn’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 is targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Is “Open Source” Secure?

Many people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running a website or blog because it is 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 software code.

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

(It’s no longer 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 free to download and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for weaknesses and vulnerabilities they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open application actually makes it more secure in many ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by an open volunteer community comprised of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(The WordPress software platform is built, maintained and updated by an open community of developers around the world. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves through the effort of a global community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from hundreds of minds who are dedicated to improving the application, fixing bugs and making it safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by a large community of experienced web developers. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

As soon as a security weakness is identified by developers or users, these are immediately reported in user forums and addressed by the WordPress developers …

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

The WordPress community support system is solid and formidable and anybody can help contribute to the process of getting vulnerabilities plugged.

For example:

• If you find bugs and security weaknesses, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WordPress plugin, you can also report these by emailing plugins@wordpress.org.

This is one of the reasons why the WordPress team releases new security updates regularly, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs up-to-date …

(WordPress continually releases new version updates to address security vulnerabilities)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Platforms

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 make the code more secure. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” software applications are normally built by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, support, 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 technology. 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 Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, the chart below shows the number of security vulnerabilities found in popular CMS platforms …

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

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, WordPress sites had less exposure to risk …

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

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

When WordPress sites get subjected to brute-force attacks, don’t be quick to blame the WordPress CMS platform.

According to security vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, a large number of website owners have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their sites had been compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern for WordPress users, however, is the fact that most security problems seem to be related to website owners not upgrading 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% – 30% 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 for WordPress …

(WordPress Security Issues. Screenshot: WebDesign.org)

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

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security 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” 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 around the world, including banks, large organizations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors That Can Affect Security

Other research on issues that play a role in 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 being attacked, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The biggest weakness in all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes require frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Hosting server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting accounts are only as safe as the least safe site on the hosting grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site broken into, then every site on that shared server becomes vulnerable to being hacked also.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Choosing WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you remember to implement basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) up-to-date, there is really no reason not to use WordPress.

WordPress Security – Tips

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

A compromised site presents hackers with a valuable resource for distributed attacks, spreading malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and bots. Learn more about it here:

• Hide Your WP Web Sites From Hackers & Bots

If you are using older versions of WordPress remember to back up everything 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.

If you don’t want to back up your site manually, there are a number of free and paid plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Back Up, Duplicate & Protect Your WordPress Site With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

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, this information has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.

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