In early 2013 a global brute-force attack hit WordPress installations across almost every WP host server in existence around the world.

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

(WordPress often is targeted by hackers, due to its popularity)

In March 2014, many technology sites reported that over 162,000 legitimate WordPress web sites had been hacked.

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

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 web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When attacks on WordPress sites gain worldwide attention, it’s natural for website owners to start questioning if WordPress really is a safe application for building and running websites.

Powering millions of websites around the world makes WordPress a target for hacker attacks. 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 choose WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and the situation is only going to get 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 you use!

Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone tries to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Is “Open Source” Secure?

Many people argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running a website or blog because it’s a freely available open source program.

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can examine the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily get hold of all of the code and study it in detail, searching for security weaknesses in the code that could be exploited …

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

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

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

(With WordPress, a global volunteer community of hundreds of web developers is responsible for keeping the platform code maintained and updated. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of hundreds of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of minds committed to improving the application and making it safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by an open community of volunteers. Screenshot source: make.wordpress.org)

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

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is very responsive and anyone can contribute to securing the platform.

For example:

• If you notice bugs and a security weakness, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WP plugin, you can report these by sending an email to plugins@wordpress.org.

This is why the WordPress community is constantly releasing new updates, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress site regularly up-to-date …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

Compare what we have just discussed above 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 very quickly understand the value of using WordPress to run your site on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the platform. 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 Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were found in popular open source CMS platforms …

(WordPress has fewer security vulnerabilities than other CMS platforms. Screenshot image: National Vulnerability Database)

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

(WordPress is safer to use than other leading CMS platforms. Image source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame The Platform

If someone compromises the security of your WordPress site, don’t be quick to place the blame on the WordPress CMS platform.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, a large number of website owners have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t know how their sites were compromised after an attack …

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

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

(Many WordPress sites are running on outdated versions. Screenshot: 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 CMS core, while 70% – 75% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by third-party developers …

(WordPress Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust software applications, WordPress is regularly updated to deal with new security problems 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 Secure – Just Ask Any Bank That Uses It!

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 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 choose WordPress to build their presence online, including banks, global corporations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors Affecting WordPress Blog Security

Other studies on issues that affect WordPress security point to factors such as:

• No platform is safe from hacking. 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 security vulnerability of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Webhosting setup. For example, sites on shared hosting accounts are only as secure as the least secure site on the grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then every site on the server can potentially become vulnerable to being hacked as well.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Using WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you commit to implementing basic website security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their chosen technology platform) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) updated, there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t choose WordPress to power your web site 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 site offers malicious users with a resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and bots. Go here to learn more:

• How To Prevent Malicious Intrusions On Your WP Websites From Hackers With Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are using outdated versions of WordPress remember to make a full site backup 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 data manually, there are many free and paid plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Backup, Duplicate & Protect Your WordPress Websites With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

References

The above facts were sourced from the following sites:

• ITProPortal.com
• National Vulnerability Database
• BlogDefender.com
• UpAndUpStudios.com
• StopBadware.org
• Sucuri.net
• WebDesign.org
• Quora.com
• Ma.tt

Hopefully, the above 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 please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.

***