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

These attacks were caused by botnets (networks of infected computers programmed to attack other sites with security vulnerabilities).

(WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attacks by hackers)

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

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Image: 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 brute-force attacks on WordPress sites seem to increase, it’s natural for people to start asking if WordPress really is a safe platform for running their websites.

WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system making it a target for hacking. But should you really 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 have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and this is only going to get worse.

You can safely 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 not a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website will be targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

How Secure Is “Open Source” Software?

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

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can access the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download all of the code and study it in great detail, looking for vulnerabilities in the code that could be exploited …

(It’s not 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 a free program 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 lot more secure in a number of ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of a huge community of hundreds 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 …

(The WordPress software platform is built, maintained and updated by a community of volunteers worldwide. Image: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of a global volunteer community working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users who, at any one time, are focused on improving the software and making WordPress safer for every user …

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

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

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

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

For example:

• If you come across bugs or a security issue, you can report these by emailing security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a plugin, you can also report these by notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is why the WordPress team is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs regularly maintained …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to plug any security weaknesses found)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Applications

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an open source technology like WordPress is that users benefit from a large community of developers who continually contribute to improve software security. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS application is typically developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, software maintenance, bug fixes and updates.

WordPress is 100% free to download, use and modify, and hundreds 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 software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were found in each of these platforms during a given period …

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

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and keep updated, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites run on WordPress had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

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

Don’t Blame The Platform

Whenever WordPress sites get attacked en masse, users shouldn’t be too quick to blame the WordPress CMS platform.

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“, many webmasters are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or deal with compromised web security.

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

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that most security problems seem to be related to users running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many WordPress users have not updated their WP sites. Source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only around between 25% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

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

Like many software applications, WordPress is updated regularly to address new security vulnerabilities that could arise. Improving security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, plugins, and themes updated to the latest version.

WordPress … Good Enough For Banks To Use!

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

In a blog post 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, global corporations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues That Can Affect Security

Other issues that can affect site security include:

• No platform is completely immune to hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The biggest security risk in all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security systems require frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting servers are only as safe as the least safe site on the hosting grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on the server is potentially vulnerable to hacking also.

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

As you can see, WordPress is as secure as most of the leading web platforms being used by businesses of all sizes to build their presence online. As long as you commit to implementing basic website security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their chosen web platform) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) up-to-date, there’s really no reason why you should not choose WordPress.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

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

An unsecured web site offers malicious users with a platform for launching denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress makes your WordPress site invisible to bot and hacker attacks. Go here to learn more:

• Protect Your WP Site From Hackers & Bots

If you are currently using an older WordPress version make sure you make a full site backup before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore your website to its previous state.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Back Up, Copy & Protect Your WordPress Site With Backup Creator WP Plugin

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 build a better business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.

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