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

These attacks were caused by botnets (networks of infected computers programmed to attack other vulnerable sites).

(WordPress is the world’s most used CMS which makes it a natural target for hacking)

In March 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 160,000+ WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.

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

When worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to start asking just how secure the WordPress platform is for building and running their websites.

WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers. But do you really 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 definitely use WordPress if you are concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and it’s only going to get worse.

It’s probably safe to 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 when before your website will be targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Is “Open Source” Software Safe?

Many people argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for running a website or blog because its open source code means that anyone can view how the software application works.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can study the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily get hold of the code and go through every single line in great detail, looking for security vulnerabilities that they can exploit …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone attempts to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is free to download and hackers can easily access it and study the code looking for weaknesses and vulnerabilities that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source platform actually makes it a lot more secure in many ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a large community that consists of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help to improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a global community of hundreds of web developers is responsible for keeping the software platform up-to-date. Image: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves because of the effort of thousands of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from thousands of individuals committed to improving the software, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making it safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by an open community of volunteers. Image source: WordPress.org)

The moment any security issues are discovered by developers or users, these are immediately noted in user forums and addressed by the WordPress development team …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by a global community community of developers and users. Screenshot image: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anyone can help contribute to the process of addressing security issues.

For example:

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

This is one of the reasons why the core development team is constantly releasing new updates, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs regularly maintained …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to address security vulnerabilities)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Applications

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” CMS platforms are 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 hundreds of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the platform. 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 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 to support the fact that WordPress is actually 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 each of these CMS platforms …

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

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

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

It’s Not WordPress’ Fault

If someone hacks into your WordPress site, don’t be quick to blame 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“, many website owners have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with compromises.

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

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

Of more immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security issues seem to be related to website owners forgetting to update their CMS software to a newer version …

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated version of WordPress. 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 actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

(WP Security Issues. Source: WebDesign.org)

Like many web applications, WordPress is updated regularly in order to address new security problems that may 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 … Good Enough For Banks To Use!

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

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

Other Factors Affecting WordPress Website Security

Other issues that can affect blog security include things such as:

• No platform is completely protected from security threats. 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 biggest risk of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security systems need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting servers are only as secure as the least safe site on the grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then all sites on that server are potentially vulnerable to being hacked also.

There’s No Reason Why You Should Not Use WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most of the leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you commit to implementing basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) updated, there’s no reason to avoid choosing 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 vulnerable blog offers hackers with a platform for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and bots. Go here to learn more:

• How To Prevent Malicious Cyber-Attacks On Your WordPress Site By Hackers & Botnets With Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are using older versions of WordPress remember to back up your site fully 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 data manually, there are many plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Back Up, Copy & Protect Your WP Site With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

References

The above statistics were referenced from various sources, including those listed 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 expand your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using the WP CMS software please click on links to visit other posts published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

***