In April 2013 a global brute-force attack began hitting WordPress installations across virtually every web host in existence around the world.

These attacks were caused by computer networks infected with malware and programmed to attack other installations (called “botnets”).

(Being the world’s most used CMS makes WordPress an obvious target for hacking)

In March 2014, many technology sites reported that over 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.

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

When global brute-force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to start questioning just how safe and secure WordPress is as a software for running an online presence.

WordPress often comes under attack by hackers, due to its global popularity. But should you be concerned about WordPress as being a secure platform for building your business web presence?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should definitely consider choosing 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 massive, and this is only going to get worse.

You can safely 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 no longer a matter of if, but when before your website is targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Is “Open Source” Safe?

Many people often argue that WordPress is not a secure platform for building and running websites because its open source code means that anyone can view how the software program runs.

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

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

(It’s not 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 go through the code looking for security holes or vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source application actually makes it more secure in several ways.

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

(With WordPress, a community of thousands of web developers is responsible for keeping the software platform updated. Screenshot source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from hundreds of minds committed to improving the application, fixing bugs and making it safer for every user …

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

As soon as any security weakness is discovered by developers or users, the WordPress core developers are then notified …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is very responsive and anybody can contribute to the process of getting vulnerabilities plugged.

For example:

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

This is the reason why the WordPress community releases new security updates on a regular basis, and why you continually need to keep your sites and blogs regularly maintained …

(WordPress continually releases new updates to address security weaknesses)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Platforms

Contrast the benefits of using an open source CMS platform like WordPress with proprietary CMS platforms where often a much smaller team with limited resources is responsible for monitoring and improving software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will quickly understand the value and advantages of using WordPress to run your business presence online on a secure platform.

WordPress is free to download, use and modify, 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 completely free software that you can download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Applications

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management applications, there is valid research showing that WordPress is actually safer than other Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

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

(WordPress has less security vulnerabilities than other leading CMS applications. Image source: National Vulnerability Database)

Other studies show that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and keep updated, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

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

It’s Not WordPress’ Fault

If someone compromises the security of your WordPress site, don’t be quick to blame 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“, most website owners have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with web security compromises.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t know how their websites had been hacked after an attack …

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

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

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated WordPress version. Screenshot 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 core software, while 70% – 85% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

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

Like many modern software platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to address new security risks that could arise. Improving security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is has even caused Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime in and reply to posts online.

In a post 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, including banks, leading brands and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers.

Other Factors That Can Affect Security

Other areas that can affect WP site security include:

• No platform is immune to hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The main risk in all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security processes need constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting are only as safe as the least secure site on the grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on your server become vulnerable to being hacked also.

There Is No Reason Not To Choose WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is as secure as most other leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you remember to implement basic website security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly updated, there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t use WordPress to run your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks see this article:  Ten Ways To Prevent Brute-Force Attacks On WordPress

An unsecured blog presents malicious users with a valuable platform to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and use your website to steal information from others. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress Websites makes your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots. Go here to learn more:

• Blog Defender Review – Make Your Websites Hidden To Bots And Hackers

If you are using older WordPress versions make sure you back up your site 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. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Backup, Clone & Protect Your WordPress Web Site With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

References

The statistics quoted above 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 business results online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress please see other articles published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

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