In early 2013 a global brute-force attack struck WordPress installations on almost every WP hosting server in existence.

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

(WordPress is the world’s most used content management system which makes it a natural target for hackers)

In March 2014, technology sites began reporting that over 162,000 WordPress sites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Image source: BlogDefender site)

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 flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When brute force attacks on WordPress sites increase in frequency, it’s natural for website owners to ask if WordPress really is a safe software for running websites.

WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system which makes it a natural target for malicious attempts by hackers. But should you be concerned about WordPress as being a secure platform for building your business web presence?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s getting 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 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?

”How Can Open Source Software Programs Be Protected From Hacking?”

Many people will often try to argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for building and running a web presence because it’s an “open source” and freely available program.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can access the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain all of the code and study every single line in great detail, looking for holes and weaknesses in the code that they can exploit …

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

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

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of a community that consists of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help to improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a large volunteer community of web developers is responsible for keeping the software platform maintained and updated. Source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress evolves largely through the effort of a global community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users committed to improving the application, fixing bugs and making it safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by an open community of contributors. Screenshot image: WordPress.org)

The moment any security vulnerabilities are discovered by developers or users, the WordPress core developers are then notified …

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

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

For example:

• If you discover bugs or 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 why the WordPress team releases new security updates so frequently, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs regularly updated …

(WordPress continually releases new version updates to plug security exploits)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an ”open” 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” CMS platforms 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 free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the technology. Can a proprietary technology 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 Platforms

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, there is valid research showing that WordPress is safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in popular platforms during a given period …

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

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to keep up-to-date, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, WordPress sites had less exposure to risk …

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

Don’t Blame WordPress When Things Go Wrong

Whenever WordPress sites are subjected to brute-force attacks, don’t be too 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 organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, most webmasters are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with security compromises.

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t know how their websites 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 issues seem to be related to site owners running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many WordPress users have not updated their WP sites. Image source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by third-party developers …

(WP Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust software platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security risks that could arise. Improving software security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress software, plugins, themes, etc..

WordPress … Secure Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation about WordPress security has even led Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime in and reply to posts online.

In a post entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” published 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, leading brands and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers.

Other Issues Affecting Site Security

Other research on issues that affect website security point to areas like:

• No platform is immune to hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main security risk in all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security systems need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Webhosting setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as safe 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’s No Reason Not To Use WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you continue to implement basic security measures (which all website owners should do) 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 Brute Force Attacks

A compromised website offers hackers with a platform to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots. Learn more about it here:

• How To Make Your Web Site Invisible To Botnets And Hackers With Blog Defender 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 risks. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Clone And Protect Your WordPress Site 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 issues 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 please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

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