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

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

(WordPress powers millions of websites and blogs worldwide, making it a natural target for hacking attacks)

In March 2014, many technology sites reported that over 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Image: BlogDefender site)

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 attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever attacks on WordPress sites increase in frequency, it’s natural for website owners to ask if WordPress really is a safe application for building and running a business web presence.

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS making it a frequent target for hacking. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as a secure platform for building your business website?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and this 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 … regardless of the web platform you use!

Since it’s not a matter of if, but when before a malicious user 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 will often argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running websites because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can examine the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download the code and go through all of it in detail, searching for security weaknesses that could be exploited …

(It’s no longer 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 free and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for security holes or weaknesses they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source platform actually makes it more secure in a number of ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of a volunteer community that consists 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 …

(WordPress is built, maintained and updated by a community of hundreds of volunteers. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of thousands of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users committed to improving the code, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making WordPress safer for every user …

(WordPress is built by an open community of experienced web developers. Screenshot: make.wordpress.org)

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

(WordPress is continually being improved by an open community of developers and users. Source: make.wordpress.org)

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is solid and formidable and anyone can help contribute to the process of fixing security issues.

For example:

• If you find bugs and security vulnerabilities, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a WP plugin, you can also report these by emailing plugins@wordpress.org.

This is the reason why the WordPress team releases new version updates so often, and why you continually need to keep your sites and blogs regularly updated …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to plug security weaknesses)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Applications

Contrast the benefits of using an open source CMS platform like WordPress with proprietary platforms where often a much smaller team with limited time and resources is responsible for developing, monitoring and improving software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will quickly understand the value of using WordPress to power your business web presence on a secure platform.

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 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 CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities found in each of these open source platforms during a given period …

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

Other studies also show that, because WordPress is easy to use and keep up-to-date, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites built with WordPress had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

(WordPress is safer to use than other CMS platforms. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame WordPress When Things Go Wrong

If someone hacks into your WordPress site, don’t be quick to blame the WordPress CMS platform.

According to security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, most webmasters are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with security compromises.

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

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

Of more immediate concern for WordPress users, is the fact that many security issues seem to be related to website owners forgetting to update their WordPress software to a newer version …

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

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while 65% – 80% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

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

Like many web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to address new security problems that may 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, plugins, themes, etc..

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

The amount of misinformation about WordPress security has even caused Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime in and reply to posts online.

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

Other Areas Affecting WordPress Site Security

Other areas that can affect site security include factors like:

• No platform is immune to security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The biggest security threat of all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security systems require constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting are only as safe as the least safe website on the hosting grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site broken into, then every site on the server can potentially become vulnerable.

There’s No Reason Why You Should Not Choose WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you commit to implementing basic security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly updated, there is 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:  Protecting WordPress From Brute Force Attacks

A compromised web site offers hackers with a valuable platform for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress Blogs makes your WordPress site invisible to bots and hackers. Go here to learn more:

• Protect Your WordPress Blogs From Botnets And Hackers With Blog Defender

If you are using older WordPress versions remember to make a full site backup 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 perform manual backups, there are a number of plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Back Up, Copy & Keep Your WP Sites Protected With Backup Creator WP Plugin

References

The above facts 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 website 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 see other articles published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.

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