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

These attacks were caused by botnets (computer networks infected with viruses and programmed to attack other computers with security vulnerabilities).

(WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers)

On March 11, 2014, many leading technology sites began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Screenshot 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)

As described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to question just how safe and secure WordPress is as a software for building and running a business web presence.

Being the world’s most used content management system makes WordPress a target for hacker attacks. But do you 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 definitely consider using WordPress if you are concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and this is getting worse.

You can safely assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time … 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 your website is targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

How Secure Are “Open Source” Software Programs?

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

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can view the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download all of the code and go through every single line in detail, looking for security weaknesses in the code that could 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 free to download and hackers can easily go through the code searching for vulnerabilities and weaknesses (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.

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

(With WordPress, a community of thousands of volunteers around the world is responsible for keeping the core application updated. Image source: WordPress.org)

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

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a global community of volunteers. Image source: WordPress.org)

As soon as any security hole is discovered by developers or users, the WordPress development team are then made aware of it …

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

The WordPress community support system is solid and formidable and anybody can help contribute to the process of addressing vulnerabilities.

For example:

• If you notice bugs and security exploits, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a plugin, you can report these by emailing plugins@wordpress.org.

This is one of the reasons why the core development team releases new security updates on a regular basis, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs updated and maintained …

(WordPress continually releases new updates to plug security holes)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

Compare what we have just discussed above with proprietary technologies where often a small team with limited time and resources is responsible for monitoring and maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will very quickly realize the security benefits of using WordPress to power your business presence online on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the technology. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you a free CMS application that you can download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source Applications

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management applications, there is valid research to support the fact that WordPress is safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla.

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in popular CMS platforms …

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

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and maintain, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites run on WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

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

It’s Easier To Blame Technology When Things Go Wrong

When WordPress sites get attacked, you shouldn’t be too quick to place the blame on 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 website owners have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

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

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

Of more immediate concern for WordPress users, however, is the fact that many security issues seem to be related to website owners not upgrading their CMS 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 20% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while 70% – 80% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

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

Like all robust web applications, WordPress is updated regularly in order to address new security vulnerabilities that can arise. Improving software security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins updated to the latest version.

WordPress … Secure Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation about WordPress security has even led the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime into the debate.

In an article entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” published 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 Issues That Can Affect Security

Other issues that can affect site security include:

• No platform is completely 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 biggest security vulnerability in all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security processes need to be frequently monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Webhosting setup. For example, sites on shared hosting are only as secure as the least secure site on the grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then all sites on your server can potentially become vulnerable.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Choosing WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you remember to implement basic website security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their technology platform) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) updated, there is no reason to avoid using WordPress.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

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

An unsecured site offers malicious users with a valuable platform to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress Websites makes your WordPress site invisible to bots and hackers. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Protect Your WordPress Site From Hackers

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

If you don’t want to back up your site manually, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Duplicate And Keep Your WordPress Web Sites Protected 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, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better business results online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress please click on links to visit other articles published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

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