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

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

(WordPress is the world’s most used content management system which makes it a target for attempted hacker attacks)

On March 11, 2014, many leading technology sites reported that over 160,000+ WordPress web sites had been hacked.

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

Whenever worldwide brute-force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to ask if WordPress really is a secure platform for running an online presence.

WordPress powers millions of websites worldwide, which makes it an obvious target for hacking attempts. 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 definitely use WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and things are 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 you use!

Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website is targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”Isn’t Open Source Software An Open Invitation To Hacking?”

Some people will often argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for building and running websites and blogs because it’s “open source” and freely available program.

Open-source CMS platforms like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to use and anyone can view the underlying software code.

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

(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 searching for security holes and vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open platform actually makes it more secure in several ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a huge volunteer community consisting of hundreds of 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 web developers is responsible for keeping the core application code updated. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of a global volunteer community working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of individuals committed to improving the application, fixing bugs and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

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

The moment any security problems are identified by developers or users, these are normally recorded in user forums and addressed by the WordPress development team …

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

The WordPress community support system is very responsive and anybody can help contribute to improving the platform.

For example:

• If you find bugs or security vulnerabilities, you can report these by notifying 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 community is constantly releasing new version updates, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress site frequently up-to-date …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to address any security exploits found)

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS 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 improve software security. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” software applications are built by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, software maintenance, bug fixes and updates.

WordPress is 100% free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the platform. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you a completely free platform that you can download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in popular open source platforms during a certain period …

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

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

(WordPress users are not as exposed to exploits as other CMS platform users. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame The WordPress CMS

Whenever WordPress sites are subjected to brute-force attacks, users shouldn’t be quick to place the blame on the WordPress CMS platform.

According to security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, a large number of website owners have no idea about the security 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 websites were compromised by hackers after an attack …

(Many webmasters don’t even know how their sites were hacked. Source: StopBadware.org)

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

(Many WordPress users have not upgraded their sites. Screenshot: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only between 25% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while 70% – 80% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

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

Like many web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to address new security threats that may arise. Improving software security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins up-to-date.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

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

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

Other Issues Affecting WordPress Website Security

Other factors that can affect WP blog security include areas such as:

• No platform is protected from hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main weakness of 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 constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting accounts are only as secure as the least secure website 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.

There Is No Reason Not To Use WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is as secure as most of the leading web platforms being used by businesses of all sizes to build their presence online. As long as you commit to implementing basic security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their chosen web platform) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) updated, there’s 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:  Ten Things You Can Do To Help Prevent Brute Force Attacks On WordPress

An unsecured web site presents malicious users with a platform for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to bot and hacker attacks. Learn more about it here:

• How To Make Your Blogs Hidden To Bots And Hackers With Blog Defender Security Plugin

If you are currently using an outdated version of WordPress remember to back up your WordPress site fully before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. 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 many WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Backup, Duplicate & Protect Your WP Web Site With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

Article References

The statistics quoted above 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, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit other posts we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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