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

These attacks were caused by botnets (computers infected with malware and programmed to attack other installations).

(Powering millions of websites and blogs around the world makes WordPress an obvious target for hackers)

On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 WordPress sites had been hacked.

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

Whenever brute-force attacks on WordPress sites increase in frequency, it’s natural for website owners to question if WordPress really is a secure software for running an online presence.

WordPress powers millions of sites worldwide, which makes it a frequent 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 definitely choose WordPress if you are concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and this 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 when before your website is targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

The “Open Source” Argument For Security Vulnerabilities

Some people will often try to argue that WordPress is not a secure platform for building and running a website or blog because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can access the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily get hold of all of the code and study every single line in great detail, looking for weaknesses and vulnerabilities that can be exploited …

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

While it’s true that WordPress is a free program and hackers can easily access it and study the code looking for vulnerabilities and weaknesses that can be exploited (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 many ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of an open volunteer community comprised of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(A large volunteer community of thousands of developers maintain and update. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress evolves through the effort of hundreds of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from hundreds of minds committed to improving the application, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making WordPress safer for every user …

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

The moment that a security issue is discovered by developers or users, the WordPress development team are then notified …

(WordPress is continually being improved by thousands of committed individuals community of web developers and users. Image: make.wordpress.org)

The WordPress community support system is solid and formidable and anyone can help contribute to fixing the platform.

For example:

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

This is one of the reasons why WordPress is constantly releasing new version updates, and why you need to keep your site regularly maintained …

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

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary 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 make the software more secure. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” software applications are normally developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, maintenance services, bug fixes and software fixes.

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 CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management applications, there is valid research to support the fact that the WordPress CMS 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 CMS platforms …

(WordPress experiences fewer security vulnerabilities than other leading CMS platforms. Image source: National Vulnerability Database)

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and keep updated, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

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

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

Whenever WordPress sites get subjected to brute-force attacks, 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,” published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, most webmasters are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with compromised web security.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t know how their sites had been hacked after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern for WordPress users, however, is the fact that many security problems seem to be related to site owners not upgrading their WordPress software to a newer version …

(Many WordPress sites are running on outdated versions. Screenshot image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only around between 20% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are 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 all robust web applications, WordPress is updated regularly in order to address new security issues that can 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, themes, plugins, etc..

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Are Using It!

The amount of misinformation online about how secure WordPress is has even led the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime into the online discussion.

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, including banks, leading brands and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect WP Security

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

• No platform is completely protected 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 weakness in all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes need frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting servers are only as secure as the least secure website on the grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site broken into, then every site on that shared server can potentially become vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Why You Should Not Use WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you remember to implement basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t choose WordPress.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks see this article:  Preventing WordPress Brute-Force Attacks

A vulnerable web site presents hackers with a resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress Websites & Blogs makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and bots. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Prevent Bots And Hackers From Attacking Your Site

If you are using outdated WordPress versions make sure to back up your WordPress files 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 things back to their previous settings.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Backup, Clone And Protect Your WordPress Website With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

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, the above article has given you a better understanding of problems 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 WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles or tutorials are published.

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