In early 2013 a global brute-force attack hit WordPress installations on almost every WP host server in existence around the world.

These attacks were caused by botnets (computer networks infected with malware and programmed to attack other sites with security vulnerabilities).

(WordPress is the world’s most used CMS making it a natural target for hacking)

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

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 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 WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to start questioning if WordPress really is a secure software for building and running an online presence.

Being the world’s most popular content management system makes WordPress a 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 use WordPress if you are concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

Thousands of websites 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 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 argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for building and running a business online because it’s “open source” and freely available application.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can view the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download all of the code and go through every single line, searching for weaknesses and vulnerabilities that could be exploited …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone attempts to hack your website … 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 weaknesses or vulnerabilities that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source platform actually makes it more secure in several ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of a large community consisting of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(A huge community maintain and update. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of a global volunteer community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from hundreds of web developers, designers and users dedicated to improving the application, fixing bugs and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a large community of volunteer members. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

The moment that a security hole is discovered by developers or users, these are logged in user forums and addressed by the WordPress development team …

(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 is very responsive and anyone can contribute to the process of getting bugs fixed.

For example:

• If you come across bugs and a security weakness, you can report these by sending an email to security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a plugin, you can report these by notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is why the WordPress team releases new updates so often, and why you need to keep your site regularly updated …

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

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Platforms

Contrast the benefits of using an open source CMS technology like WordPress 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 understand the value of using WordPress to power your business presence online on a secure platform.

WordPress is 100% free to download, modify and use, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the platform. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you a free CMS application that you can download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Applications

(CMS Platforms)

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

For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities discovered in popular open source CMS platforms …

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

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

(WordPress users are less exposed to exploits than other CMS platform users. Image source: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Is Not At Fault

Whenever WordPress sites get subjected to brute-force attacks, don’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“, a large number of webmasters have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t know how their websites had been compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security issues seem to be related to website owners forgetting to upgrade their CMS software to a newer version …

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

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only between 20% – 30% percent 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 …

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

Like many web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security problems that can arise. Improving security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress software, themes, plugins, etc..

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 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, large organizations and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers.

Other Factors Affecting Website Security

Other areas that can affect website security include:

• No platform is completely immune to hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main security risk of all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes need regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting accounts are only as secure as the least safe website on the grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on your server can potentially become vulnerable to hacking as well.

There Is No Reason Not To Choose WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you implement basic web security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) up-to-date, there’s really no reason why you should not use 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 Your WordPress Site Or Blog

A vulnerable site provides hackers with a valuable resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and use your website to steal information from innocent people. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to bot and hacker attacks. Learn more about it here:

• Prevent Malicious Cyber Attacks On Your WP Blog From Hackers & Bots

If you are currently using an older version of WordPress remember to make a complete backup before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore things back to their former configuration.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Back Up, Duplicate And Keep Your WordPress Websites And Blogs Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

Article References

The statistics quoted in this article were referenced from various online 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, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

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