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

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

(WordPress often is targeted by hackers)

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

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Screenshot image: 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 attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to start questioning if WordPress really is a safe software for building and running an online presence.

Powering millions of sites worldwide makes WordPress a target for hackers. 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 consider using WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and the situation is only going to get worse.

It’s safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone attempts 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 will be targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Are “Open Source” Programs Secure?

Some people will often try to argue that WordPress cannot be a safe platform for building and running a business online because having open source code means that anyone can view how the software program code works.

Open-source CMS platforms 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 anyone can examine the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download the code and study every line in detail, looking for security holes in the code that could be exploited …

(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 and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for vulnerabilities or weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source application actually makes it a whole lot more secure in many ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a volunteer community that consists of hundreds of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

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

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of a huge community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from hundreds of individuals committed to improving the application and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by a large community of volunteer members. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

The moment that any security problem is discovered by developers or users, these are then noted in user forums and addressed by the WordPress development team …

(WordPress is continually being improved by an open community of web developers and users. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system is very responsive and anyone can contribute to improving the software.

For example:

• If you find bugs and security exploits, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a 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 updates, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs regularly maintained …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary Applications

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an open source platform like WordPress is that users benefit from a large community of developers who continually contribute to make the code more secure. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS application is normally developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, support, bug fixes and updates.

WordPress is 100% free to download, modify and use, and hundreds 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 users a free CMS software that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms - 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, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities discovered in each of these CMS platforms …

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

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites run on WordPress had significantly less exposure to risk …

(WordPress is more secure than other leading CMS applications. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Should Not Be Blamed

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

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” which is published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, many webmasters are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with compromised web security.

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t know how their websites had been compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

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

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated version of WordPress. Screenshot: 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 third-party code are actually found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

(WordPress Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly to address new security threats that can arise. Improving software security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, plugins, and themes 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 caused the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime in and reply to posts online.

In an article 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, including banks, leading brands and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors That Can Affect WP Site Security

Other studies 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 outdated software.
• The main security threat of all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security systems require regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting servers are only as secure as the least safe website on the grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then all sites on your server can potentially become vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Choose WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is as secure as most other leading web platforms being used by businesses of all sizes to build their presence online. As long as you commit to implementing basic website security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly updated, there is really no reason not to choose WordPress to drive your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – Tips

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

An unsecured blog presents malicious users with a valuable resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets. Learn more about this plugin here:

• How To Prevent Hackers & Bots From Finding And Attacking Your Web Sites With Blog Defender Security Plugin

If you are using older versions of WordPress remember to make a complete backup 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 files 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: Backup, Duplicate And Protect Your WP Websites And Blogs With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

Article References

For more information on the above, see the following sources:

• 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 problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business website please click on links to visit other articles published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

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