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

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

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

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

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Screenshot image: 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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

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

Being the world’s most used CMS makes WordPress an obvious target for attempted attacks by hackers. 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 choose WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation is only going to get 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 not 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?

Are “Open Source” Applications Safe?

Many people often argue that WordPress should not be used for running a web presence because having open source code means that anyone can view how the application runs.

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily get hold of the code and go through it in great detail, searching for weaknesses and vulnerabilities that they could exploit …

(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 a free application and hackers can easily go through the code searching for security holes and vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source application actually makes it a whole lot more secure in a number of ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a global volunteer community of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, an open community of thousands of volunteers around the world is responsible for keeping the platform code up-to-date. Screenshot: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves through the effort of a huge volunteer community working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from hundreds of web developers, designers and users dedicated to improving the code, identifying and fixing security issues and making WordPress safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by an open community of volunteer members. Image source: WordPress.org)

As soon as any security problems are discovered by developers or users, the WordPress development team are then notified …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by an open community of users and developers. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anyone can help contribute to securing the software.

For example:

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

This is why the core development team releases new updates on a regular basis, and why you need to keep your WordPress site regularly up-to-date …

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

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Applications

Compare what we have just discussed above with proprietary CMS platforms where often the responsibility for improving software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a small team of developers with limited resources and you will quickly realize the security benefits of using WordPress to run your web presence on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is 100% 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 Platforms

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were found in each of these open source CMS platforms …

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

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

(WordPress has significantly less exposure to risk than other CMS applications. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Is Not To Blame

When WordPress sites are attacked en masse, users shouldn’t be 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 secure a website, or deal with compromised web security.

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t know how their websites had been hacked after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that most security issues seem to be related to site owners not updating their CMS software to the latest version …

(Many WordPress sites are running on outdated 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 third-party code are actually found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

(WP Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust software applications, WordPress is regularly updated to deal with new security vulnerabilities that may arise. Improving software security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress.

WordPress Is Secure – Just Ask Any Bank Using It!

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

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 around the world use WordPress to build their web presence, including banks, global corporations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues That Can Affect Security

Other areas that can affect site security include factors such as:

• No platform is immune to hackers. 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 platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security processes need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting accounts are only as safe as the least safe site on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then all sites on that server can potentially become vulnerable.

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

As you can see, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you commit to implementing basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there is no reason to avoid using WordPress.

WordPress Security – 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 website presents hackers with a resource for distributed attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• Blog Defender – How To Make Your Web Site Unseen By Hackers

If you are using outdated versions of WordPress remember to make a backup before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to back up your data manually, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Backup, Clone And Protect Your WordPress Website With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

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, this post has given you 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 our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

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