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

These attacks were caused by infected computer networks programmed to attack other installations, also commonly known as “botnets”.

(Being the world’s most popular content management system makes WordPress a target for hacking attempts)

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

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

When global attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to ask if WordPress really is a safe application for building and running an online presence.

Being the world’s most used CMS makes WordPress an obvious target for hacking. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure web platform?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should use WordPress if you are concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and the situation is getting worse.

It’s safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone does 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 a matter of 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 Really Safe?

Many people often argue that WordPress should not be used for running websites or blogs because having open source code means that anyone can view how the software application code works.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can examine the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain the code and go through every single line in great detail, looking for security vulnerabilities in the code that can be exploited …

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

While it’s true that WordPress is free to download and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for security holes and weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open software platform actually makes it a lot more secure in several ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a huge volunteer community of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(The WordPress platform is built, maintained and updated by an open community of thousands of volunteers. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of a global community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from thousands of individuals who are dedicated to improving the software, fixing bugs and making it safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by a global community of contributors. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

As soon as any security vulnerabilities are discovered by developers or users, the WordPress development team are then made aware of it …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anyone can help contribute to improving the software.

For example:

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

This is the reason why the core development team is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you continually need to keep your site regularly updated …

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

WordPress 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 platform more secure. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” CMS platforms are normally 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 100% free to download, modify and use, and hundreds 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 Vs Other Open Source Applications

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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 like Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in each of these open source CMS platforms …

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

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

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

Don’t Blame WordPress

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

According to security vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, a large number of webmasters are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with web security compromises.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t know how their sites had been hacked after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security-related issues come from website owners running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many security issues come from sites running outdated WordPress versions. Screenshot: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only between 25% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress core software, while 65% – 75% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

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

Like all robust web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security threats that can arise. Improving software security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, themes, and plugins updated to the latest version.

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Are Using It!

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

In a post 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 use WordPress to build their presence online, including banks, large organizations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors Affecting Site Security

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

• No platform is completely immune to hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The main weakness in all content management 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 processes need constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Webhosting setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting accounts are only as safe as the least safe site on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on that server are potentially vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Use WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you continue to implement basic website security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there’s no reason to avoid choosing WordPress to run your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

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

A vulnerable web site presents hackers with a valuable resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• Prevent Hackers From Finding And Attacking Your Blogs 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 benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore things back to their former state.

If you don’t want to back up your data manually, 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: Back Up, Clone & Protect Your WP Websites With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

References

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 information has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress please click on links to visit other posts published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.

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