In 2013 a global brute-force attack began hitting WordPress installations across virtually every web host in existence.

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

(WordPress is often the target of malicious attacks by hackers)

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

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Screenshot: 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 sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever brute force attacks on WordPress sites take place on a worldwide scale, it’s natural for website owners to start questioning if WordPress really is a safe software for building and running their sites.

WordPress is the world’s most used CMS making it a frequent target for attempted hacker attacks. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure platform for building your business presence online?

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 some facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and things are only going to get worse.

It’s safe to 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 when before someone will try to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

How Secure Is “Open Source” Software?

Some people argue that WordPress is not a secure platform for building and running websites or blogs because its “open source” code is freely available.

Open source CMS software like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to use and anyone has access to the entire software code.

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download the code and go through every line, searching for vulnerabilities that could 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 go through the code looking for holes or vulnerabilities they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in several ways.

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

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

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from hundreds of individuals who, at any one time, are focused on improving the software, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making WordPress safer for every user …

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

The moment any security weaknesses are identified by developers or users, the WordPress development team are then made aware of it …

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

The WordPress community support system is solid and formidable and anybody can contribute to the process of addressing security issues.

For example:

• If you notice bugs or a security hole, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a plugin, you can report these by sending an email to plugins@wordpress.org.

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

(WordPress continually releases new updates to plug security weaknesses)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Platforms

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” software application is typically developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, software maintenance, bug fixes and software fixes.

The WordPress CMS is free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the software. 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 CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, the chart below shows the number of security vulnerabilities found in popular open source platforms during a certain period …

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

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

(Blog Defender – CMS Tests. Source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame WordPress

Whenever WordPress sites get subjected to brute-force attacks, you shouldn’t be too quick to blame WordPress.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” which is published by a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises called StopBadware and security vendor Commtouch, most website owners are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with compromises.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their websites had been compromised after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern, however, is the fact that most security-related problems arise from users not upgrading their CMS software to a newer version …

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

When WordPress security issues were examined 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 developed externally …

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

Like many modern web platforms, WordPress is regularly updated in order to address new security threats that may arise. Improving software security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress software, plugins, themes, etc..

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

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

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

Other Factors Affecting Website Security

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

• No platform is completely safe from 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 biggest security weakness in all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security systems need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting are only as safe as the least safe website on the grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on the server can potentially become vulnerable to hacking as well.

There’s No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Choose WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you continue to implement basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there is no reason not to choose WordPress for your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks see this article:  WordPress Brute Force Attack Prevention Measures

A compromised web site presents hackers with a valuable resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and use your site to defraud others. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to bot and hacker attacks. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Blog Defender Review

If you are using older versions of WordPress make sure to make a 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 perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Back Up, Copy & Protect Your WordPress Site With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

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, this information has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website please see other posts we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

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