In April 2013 a global brute force attack began hitting WordPress installations on almost every host server in existence.

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

(WordPress often is targeted by hackers, due to its global popularity)

In March 2014, many leading technology sites reported that 160,000+ legitimate WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Screenshot source: Blog Defender)

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 web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever brute-force attacks on WordPress sites happen, it’s natural for people to start questioning if WordPress really is a safe platform for running a business web presence.

WordPress is the world’s most used content management system making it an obvious target for hacking attacks. But should you be concerned about WordPress as a secure web platform?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should choose 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 sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation is only going to get worse.

It’s probably safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’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 your website has been built with!

Since it’s not a matter of if, but when before a malicious user attempts to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

The “Open Source” Argument For Security “Weakness”

Many people will often try and argue that WordPress should not be used for running a business online because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can view the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily obtain all of the code and go through every line, searching for weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the code that can be exploited …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before a malicious user will try to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is free and hackers can easily go through the code searching for security holes or weaknesses they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open software platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in several ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a community comprised of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a community of thousands of developers worldwide is responsible for keeping the platform maintained and updated. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress evolves largely through the effort of hundreds of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from hundreds of web developers, designers and users committed to improving the application, fixing bugs and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

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

As soon as security vulnerabilities are identified by developers or users, these are normally recorded in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by an open community of users and developers. Image source: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is very responsive and anybody can help contribute to the process of getting bugs fixed.

For example:

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

This is the reason why the WordPress team releases new security updates regularly, and why you continually need to keep your site frequently updated …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS 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 improve platform security. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS platform would normally be built 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 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 software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, the chart below shows 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 research shows that, because WordPress is easy to use and to update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites built with WordPress had significantly less exposure to risk …

(WordPress has significantly less exposure to risk than other leading CMS applications. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)

It’s Not WordPress’ Fault

If someone breaks into your WordPress site, don’t be too quick to blame 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“, many webmasters are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or deal with compromises.

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

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

Of immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security problems seem to be related to site owners not upgrading their WordPress software to a newer version …

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. Image source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only around between 25% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

(WP Security Issues. Source: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security risks that could 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, themes, plugins, etc..

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Use It!

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

In a blog 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 use WordPress to build their presence online, including banks, leading brands, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect Website Security

Other factors that can affect security include:

• No platform is completely immune to hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to using software that is out of date.
• The main security threat of all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security processes require regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as safe as the least secure site on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on the server are potentially vulnerable to hacking also.

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

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you commit to implementing basic website security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly updated, there’s really no reason to avoid choosing WordPress.

WordPress Security – Tips

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

A vulnerable blog offers malicious users with a valuable resource for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to botnet and hacker attacks. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Prevent Hackers & Botnets From Finding Your Site

If you are using outdated WordPress versions remember to back up your site files and data before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore your site to its previous state.

If you don’t want to back up your site manually, there are a number of plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate & Protect Your WP Web Site With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

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

***