In April 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to worldwide brute-force attacks.

These attacks were caused by infected computer networks programmed to attack other computers, also commonly known as “botnets”.

(WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers)

On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that over 160,000+ WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Screenshot source: 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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever attacks on WordPress sites attract worldwide attention, it’s natural for website owners to question if WordPress really is a safe platform for building and running websites.

WordPress often comes under attack by hackers. But should you really be concerned about WordPress as a secure web platform?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and things are getting worse.

It’s safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone does 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 a malicious user will try to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Is An “Open Source” Software Secure?

Some people argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running a website or blog because having open source code means that anyone can view how the software was built.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download all of the code and study it in great detail, looking for holes and weaknesses they can exploit …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website will be targeted by hackers … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is a free application and hackers can easily access it and study the code looking for security holes or weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source platform actually makes it a lot more secure in several ways.

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

(A huge community of hundreds of developers around the world maintain and update. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves through the effort of a global community working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from hundreds of minds committed to improving the application, fixing bugs and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a large community of volunteer members. Source: WordPress.org)

As soon as security problems are discovered by developers or users, these are then recorded in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core development team …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is very responsive and anybody can contribute to the improvement of the platform.

For example:

• If you discover bugs and security weaknesses, you can report these by emailing security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a WP plugin, you can report these by emailing plugins@wordpress.org.

This is one of the reasons why the WordPress community is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress site updated …

(WordPress continually releases new version updates to plug any security issues found)

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

Compare the benefits of using an open source CMS technology like WordPress with proprietary CMS technologies where often the responsibility for improving software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a much smaller team of developers with limited resources and you will quickly understand the security benefits of using WordPress to power your business web presence on a secure platform.

WordPress is free to download, modify and use, 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 completely free software that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

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

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

Other research shows that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites built with WordPress had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

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

WordPress Is Not At Fault

When WordPress sites are attacked, you shouldn’t be quick to place the blame on the WordPress CMS platform.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” which is published by security vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises, most website owners are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or deal with compromised web security.

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

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

Of more immediate concern, however, is the fact that most security problems seem to be related to website owners not upgrading their CMS software to the latest version …

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated version of WordPress. Screenshot source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only around between 25% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

(WP Security Issues. Image source: WebDesign.org)

Like many modern web applications, WordPress is updated regularly to deal with new security threats that could arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security has even caused the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime into the online debate.

In a blog post 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 around the world choose WordPress to build their presence online, including banks, large organizations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors Affecting WordPress Website Security

Other research on issues that affect website security point to things such as:

• No platform is completely immune to hacking. 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 security threat of all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security systems need to be frequently monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting are only as secure as the least safe website on the hosting grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then all sites on your server can potentially become vulnerable.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Choosing WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you remember to implement basic website security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their chosen web platform) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) up-to-date, there’s really no reason to avoid using WordPress to drive your web site 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 vulnerable site provides hackers with a resource for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and bots. Learn more about it here:

• How To Prevent Malicious Intrusions On Your WP Website By Hackers

If you are using older versions of WordPress remember to make a full site backup before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, 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. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Copy & Protect Your WordPress Sites With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

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, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using the WordPress platform please see other articles we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.

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