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 viruses and programmed to attack other computers (called “botnets”).

(WordPress often comes under attack by hackers, due to its popularity)

In March 2014, technology sites began reporting that 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.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)

According to leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever brute-force attacks on WordPress sites happen on such a large scale, it’s natural for website owners to ask just how secure WordPress is as an application for building and running websites.

WordPress often is targeted by hackers, due to its global popularity. But should you really be concerned about WordPress as a secure web platform?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and this is only going to get worse.

It’s 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 you use!

Since it’s not 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?

Is An “Open Source” Software Secure?

Some people will often try and argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for running a website or blog because it’s a freely available open source software program.

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can examine the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download the code and go through every single line in detail, searching for holes and weaknesses that can be exploited …

(It’s not 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 a free program and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for security weaknesses and vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source application actually makes it more secure in several ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a volunteer community that consists of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, an open community of thousands of developers is responsible for keeping the software platform updated. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves through the effort of hundreds of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from thousands of minds who, at any one time, are focused on improving the code and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by an open community of volunteers. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

As soon as any security hole is discovered by developers or users, these are then noted in user forums and addressed by the WordPress developers …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by a huge community community of users and web developers. Source: WordPress.org)

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

For example:

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

This is why the core development team releases new updates on a regular basis, and why you need to keep your WordPress site frequently updated …

(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to plug any security issues found)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Platforms

Contrast the benefits of using an open source CMS technology like WordPress with proprietary CMS platforms where often the responsibility for maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a smaller team of developers with limited resources and you will quickly realize the value of using WordPress to power your site on a secure platform.

WordPress is free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the software. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you a free platform that you can download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were found in popular platforms during a given period …

(WordPress experiences fewer security vulnerabilities than other CMS platforms. Screenshot image: National Vulnerability Database)

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is easy to use and maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites run on WordPress had less exposure to risk …

(BlogDefender.com – CMS Tests. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

When WordPress sites get subjected to brute-force attacks, don’t be too quick to blame the WordPress CMS platform.

According to a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises called StopBadware and security vendor Commtouch in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, a large number of webmasters have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

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

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that most security-related problems come from website owners running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

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

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only between 20% – 30% percent 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 extensions created by third-party developers …

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

Like many web applications, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security risks that can 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 the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, 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, including banks, leading brands and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors Affecting WordPress Security

Other factors that can affect WordPress website security include things such as:

• No platform is protected from 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 vulnerability of all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security systems require constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as secure as the least secure website on the grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site broken into, then every site on your server becomes vulnerable to being hacked as well.

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 remember to implement basic security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their technology platform) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there’s no reason not to choose WordPress to power your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Tips

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

A vulnerable web site provides hackers with a valuable platform to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and botnets. Learn more about it here:

• How To Prevent Malicious Intrusions On Your WordPress Blog By Hackers

If you are currently using an outdated version of WordPress make sure to back up your website fully before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. 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 perform manual backups, there are many free and paid WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate & Protect Your WP Website 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, the above post has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

***