In early 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to global-scale brute-force attacks.

These attacks were caused by computer networks infected with malware and programmed to attack other vulnerable computers, also commonly known as “botnets”.

(Powering millions of websites and blogs worldwide makes WordPress a target for hacking)

On March 11, 2014, many leading technology sites reported that over 162,000 WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Image source: 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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When attacks on WordPress sites are reported in the media, it’s natural for website owners to start questioning if WordPress really is a secure software for building and running their sites.

Powering millions of websites around the world makes WordPress a target for attempted hacking attacks. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as a secure platform for building your business presence online?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should use WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation is getting worse.

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

Is “Open Source” Secure?

Many people argue that WordPress should not be used for running websites because it’s a freely available open source program.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can access the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily obtain all of the code and go through every line in detail, searching for weaknesses and vulnerabilities they can exploit …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website will be targeted by hackers … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is free and hackers can easily access it and study the code looking for holes or vulnerabilities they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open application actually makes it more secure in several ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of a global community comprised of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a large community of hundreds of volunteers worldwide is responsible for keeping the software platform updated. Source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves through the effort of a global volunteer community working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of individuals committed to improving the application, identifying and fixing security holes and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(WordPress is built by a large community of web developers. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

As soon as security weaknesses are discovered by developers or users, these are normally logged in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core development team …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is solid and formidable and anybody can contribute to securing the software.

For example:

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

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

(WordPress continually releases new updates to address security vulnerabilities)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an ”open” platform like WordPress is that users benefit from a large community of developers who continually contribute to improve code security. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” CMS platforms are 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 100% free to download, use and modify, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the technology. 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 Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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 such as Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows the number of security vulnerabilities discovered in each of these platforms during a certain period …

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

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

(BlogDefender.com – CMS Tests. Image: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Is Not To Blame

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

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“, a large number of webmasters are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or deal with compromised web security.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their sites were hacked after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security-related issues result from site owners running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many WordPress users have not updated their WP sites. Screenshot image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage 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 developed externally for WordPress …

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

Like many software applications, WordPress is updated regularly to deal with new security risks 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.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

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

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

Other Factors That Can Affect WP Security

Other research on issues that play a role in WordPress security point to factors such as:

• No platform is completely 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 in all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes require frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting accounts are only as secure as the least safe website on the hosting grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on your server are potentially vulnerable to being hacked also.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Using WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most other leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you commit to implementing basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly updated, there’s really no reason to avoid using WordPress to power your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  10 Security Measures That Can Help Prevent Brute Force Attacks On WordPress

A vulnerable blog provides hackers with a platform for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to botnet and hacker attacks. Go here to learn more:

• Secure Your WP Site From Botnets & Hackers

If you are currently using an older version of WordPress make sure to back up everything before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to back up your site manually, there are a number of plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Copy And Protect Your WordPress Sites With Backup Creator WP Plugin

References Used In This Article

For more information on the above, refer to the sites 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 issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about 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 content is published.

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