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

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

(WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS which makes it an obvious target for hacking attempts)

On March 11, 2014, many technology sites began reporting that 162,000 WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)

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 flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When worldwide brute-force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to question if WordPress really is a secure software for building and running an online presence.

WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attempts by hackers. But do you 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 have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and things are only going to get worse.

You can safely 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 no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone will try to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”How Can Open Source Software Programs Be Secured?”

Some people will often try to argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for running websites because it is “open source” and freely available software application.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily get hold of the code and study every line, searching for holes and weaknesses 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 vulnerabilities or weaknesses that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open application actually makes it more secure in many ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a volunteer community comprised of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(A large community of web developers is responsible for building, maintaining and updating WordPress. Screenshot: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of hundreds of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of minds dedicated to improving the code and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by an open community of web developers. Source: WordPress.org)

As soon as a security problem is discovered by developers or users, the WordPress developers are then notified …

(WordPress is continually being improved by a huge community community of users and developers. Image source: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is solid and formidable and anybody can contribute to the process of getting vulnerabilities plugged.

For example:

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

This is why WordPress is constantly releasing new version updates, and why you need to keep your sites and blogs regularly updated …

(WordPress continually releases new version updates to address any security holes 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 software more secure. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS platform is typically developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, maintenance services, bug fixes and updates.

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

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

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

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

Other research shows that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to keep updated, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites built with WordPress had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

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

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

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“, most webmasters have no idea about the security 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 for the report didn’t know how their sites had been compromised after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that most security-related issues result from users running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated WordPress version. 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 third-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by 3rd-party developers …

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

Like all robust software applications, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with 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, plugins, themes, etc..

WordPress … Secure Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation online about how secure WordPress is has even caused 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 around the world choose WordPress to build their web presence, including banks, leading brands, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues Affecting Security

Other areas that can affect security include factors such as:

• No platform is completely protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The biggest weakness of all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security systems need constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting accounts are only as secure as the least secure site on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on the server can potentially become vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Not To Use WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you commit to implementing basic website security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly updated, there is really no reason to avoid using 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 Brute-Force Attacks

A vulnerable web site offers hackers with a valuable resource for launching denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots. Go here to learn more:

• Protect Your WordPress Blogs From Hackers And Botnets

If you are using older versions of WordPress make sure to back up your site fully before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. 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 site backups here: Backup, Copy And Keep Your WP Site Protected With Backup Creator WP Plugin

Article References

The facts quoted above were referenced from various online sources, including those listed below:

• 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 get better business results online. To learn more about using WordPress please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

***