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

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

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

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

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

Whenever worldwide brute force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to ask if WordPress really is a safe application for running their sites.

WordPress often is targeted by hackers. 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 consider using WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at 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 things are getting 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 someone will attempt to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”Isn’t Open Source Software Vulnerable?”

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

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

The argument against using 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 go through it in great detail, searching for holes and weaknesses they can exploit …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but 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 searching for security holes or vulnerabilities (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 a number of ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a community of thousands of people such as 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 community of thousands of developers around the world. Source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress evolves because of the effort of a global community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from hundreds of minds dedicated to improving the software, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making WordPress safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by a large community of experienced web developers. Image: make.wordpress.org)

The moment that a security weakness is discovered by developers or users, the WordPress developers are then notified …

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

The WordPress community support system is very responsive and anybody can contribute to the improvement of the software.

For example:

• If you find bugs or a security hole, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WordPress plugin, you can report these by emailing plugins@wordpress.org.

This is why WordPress is constantly releasing new updates, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs updated …

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

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

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

The WordPress CMS is free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the software. 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 CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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

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

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

Other studies also show that, because WordPress is easy to use and maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

(WordPress is safer to use than other CMS applications. Source: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Should Not Be Blamed

Whenever WordPress sites are attacked, don’t be too quick to place the blame on WordPress.

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 website owners are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with web security compromises.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their sites were compromised after an attack …

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

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

(Many security issues come from sites running outdated WordPress versions. Image source: Sucuri.net)

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

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

Like many modern software applications, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security problems that could arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, plugins, and themes up-to-date.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security 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” 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 choose WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors That Can Affect Security

Other areas that can affect WP website security include issues like:

• No platform is protected from security threats. 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 risk of all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes need to be constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting are only as secure as the least safe site on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on the shared server is potentially vulnerable.

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

As you can see, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you implement basic security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their web platform) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there’s really no reason to avoid choosing WordPress to drive your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

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

An unsecured site presents malicious users with a resource for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to bots and hackers. Learn more about it here:

• How To Prevent Malicious Attacks On Your WP Blog From Hackers

If you are using older WordPress versions make sure you back up your WordPress website fully before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to back up your files manually, there are a number of plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Back Up, Clone And Keep Your WP Sites Protected With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

Article References

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 website and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about using WordPress please see other articles we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

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