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

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

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

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

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Screenshot: 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 websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When attacks on WordPress sites happen, it’s natural for people to ask if WordPress really is a safe application for building and running an online presence.

WordPress is the world’s most used content management system which makes it a target for attempted attacks by malicious users. But should you really be concerned about WordPress as being a secure web platform?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and the situation 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 your website is targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Is An “Open Source” Software Safe?

Many people will often try and argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running a business online because it’s an “open source” and freely available software program.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can examine the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download all of the code and study every line in detail, looking for security vulnerabilities in the code that can be exploited …

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

While it’s true that WordPress is free to download and hackers can easily go through the code looking for weaknesses or vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source software platform actually makes it a lot more secure in many ways.

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

(WordPress is built, maintained and updated by a large community of thousands of developers worldwide. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves because of the effort of a global community working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of individuals who, at any one time, are focused on improving the application, fixing bugs and making it safer for every user …

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

As soon as any security problems are discovered by developers or users, these are immediately logged in user forums and addressed by the WordPress development team …

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

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

For example:

• If you discover bugs or a security vulnerability, 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 the core development team releases new version updates so frequently, and why you need to keep your sites and blogs regularly updated …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to address security exploits)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Platforms

Compare the benefits of using an open source CMS platform 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 very quickly realize the value and advantages of using WordPress to power your business presence online on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the technology. 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)

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 like Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows the number of security vulnerabilities found in each of these open source CMS platforms …

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

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is easy to use and to keep up-to-date, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are less exposed to security threats than other CMS platform users. Image: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Is Not Always To Blame

Whenever WordPress sites get attacked, you shouldn’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“, most webmasters have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with security compromises.

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their sites had been hacked after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that many security issues seem to be related to website owners running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. Screenshot: 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 most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

(WP Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust software applications, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security problems that could 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.

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Are Using It!

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 an article 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, large organizations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting Site Security

Other factors that can affect website security include:

• No platform is safe from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The main security weakness in all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes need regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as secure as the least safe website on the grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on your shared server can potentially become vulnerable to being hacked also.

There Is No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Use WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you commit to implementing basic web security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their chosen technology platform) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there’s no reason why you should not use WordPress.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  Ten Things You Can Do To Prevent Brute Force Attacks On Your WordPress Site Or Blog

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

• How To Make Your Site Hidden To Hackers With Blog Defender Security Plugin

If you are using older WordPress versions make sure you make a 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 your web site or blog to its former state.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Backup, Duplicate & Protect Your WP Site With Backup Creator WP Plugin

References Used In This Article

The above statistics 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 problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about using WordPress please see other posts published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

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