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

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

(WordPress is the world’s most used CMS which makes it a natural target for attempted hacking attacks)

On March 11, 2014, many leading technology sites began reporting that over 160,000+ WordPress-powered websites 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)

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 global brute force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to ask if WordPress really is a secure platform for running websites.

Being the world’s most popular content management system makes WordPress an obvious target for hacking. 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 consider using WordPress if you are concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and it’s only going to get worse.

It’s safe to assume that if you haven’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 no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website is targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

The “Open Source” Argument

Many people will often argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for running web sites because it is “open source” and freely available software program.

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can view the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily get hold of the code and study it, searching for weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the code that could be exploited …

(It’s not a matter of if, but when before a malicious user will try to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is a free program and hackers can easily go through the code looking for security holes or weaknesses that can be exploited (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 many ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a global community that consists of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a community of web developers worldwide is responsible for keeping the software platform up-to-date. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves largely through the effort of a huge community working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users who are dedicated to improving the code and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a large community of web developers. Image source: WordPress.org)

The moment any security holes are identified by developers or users, the WordPress developers are then made aware of it …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is very responsive and anyone can help contribute to the process of fixing security issues.

For example:

• If you come across bugs or a security hole, you can report these by emailing security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a 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 updates so often, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress site regularly updated …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

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

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, and thousands 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 a free CMS platform that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management applications, research shows that the WordPress CMS 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 open source CMS platforms …

(WordPress experiences less security vulnerabilities than other leading CMS platforms. Source: National Vulnerability Database)

Other studies show that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to update, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, WordPress sites had less exposure to risk …

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

WordPress Is Not At Fault

If someone hacks into your WordPress site, don’t be quick to blame 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 webmasters are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with compromises.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their sites were hacked after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern for WordPress users, however, is the fact that many security-related problems come from users running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. Source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

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

Like many software platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security risks that may arise. Improving software security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, plugins, and themes updated to the latest version.

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Use It!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is has even caused 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 choose WordPress to build their websites, including banks, large organizations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect Security

Other areas that can affect website security include:

• 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 using software that is out of date.
• The biggest weakness of all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security processes require regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting servers are only as safe as the least secure site on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then every site on your server becomes vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Why You Should Not Use WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you implement basic website security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their chosen technology platform) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly updated, there is no reason not to choose 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

A compromised site provides malicious users with a platform to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to bots and hackers. Learn more about this plugin here:

• How To Hide Your WordPress Blogs From Botnets And Hackers

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version make sure you make a backup 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.

If you don’t want to back up your site manually, there are many plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Backup, Copy And Keep Your WP Site Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

References Used In This Article

The above statistics were referenced from various sources, including those listed below:

• 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 improve your business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website please click on links to visit other posts published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

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