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

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

(Powering millions of websites and blogs worldwide makes WordPress an obvious target for attacks by malicious users)

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

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

Whenever attacks on WordPress sites happen on such a wide scale, it’s natural for people to start asking if WordPress really is a secure software for building and running their websites.

WordPress is the world’s most used CMS making it a target for hacking. But should you be concerned about WordPress as being 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 are concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and things are getting worse.

It’s probably safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone does 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 will be targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Are “Open Source” Software Programs Safe?

Many people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running a web presence because it is “open source” and freely available program.

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

The argument, 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 go through every single line in great detail, looking for security holes in the code that they can exploit …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but when before a malicious user will attempt to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is a free application and hackers can easily access it and study the code looking for security holes and vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open application actually makes it a lot more secure in many ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a large community that consists 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 …

(WordPress is built, maintained and updated by a large community of thousands of volunteers worldwide. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of hundreds of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from hundreds of web developers, designers and users who, at any one time, are focused on improving the code, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making it safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by a global community of experienced web developers. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

As soon as any security problems are discovered by developers or users, the WordPress development team are then made aware of it …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is solid and formidable and anyone can contribute to the process of addressing security issues.

For example:

• If you come across bugs or a security weakness, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WordPress 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 continually need to keep your WordPress site frequently updated …

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

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

Compare what we have just discussed above with proprietary technologies where often the responsibility for maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a smaller team of developers with limited resources and you will very quickly realize the security benefits of using WordPress to power your website or blog on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the software. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users a completely free application that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Applications

(CMS Platforms)

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

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were found in popular CMS platforms …

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

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to keep updated, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, WordPress sites had significantly less exposure to risk …

(WordPress is safer to use than other leading CMS applications. Image source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame WordPress When Things Go Wrong

Whenever WordPress sites get attacked, don’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“, many webmasters are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t know how their sites were hacked after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern for WordPress users, is the fact that many security-related issues arise from website owners not upgrading their WordPress software to the latest version …

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

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only between 20% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while 65% – 85% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

(WordPress Security Issues. Screenshot: WebDesign.org)

Like many software applications, WordPress is regularly updated in order to address new security vulnerabilities that can arise. Improving security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, themes, and plugins up-to-date.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is has even led the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime into the online debate.

In a 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 choose WordPress to build their web presence, including banks, global corporations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues Affecting Security

Other areas that can affect 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 outdated software.
• The biggest threat in all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Hosting server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as safe as the least safe website on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on your server are potentially vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Why You Should Not Choose WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you commit to implementing basic security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) up-to-date, there’s no reason why you should not use WordPress to drive your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

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

A vulnerable web site offers hackers with a platform for launching denial of service attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Prevent Hackers & Bots From Attacking Your Web Site With Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are currently using an older version of WordPress remember to make a full site backup before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore things back to their former configuration.

If you don’t want to back up your data manually, there are many plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Clone And Keep Your WordPress Websites Protected With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

Article 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 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 articles or tutorials are published.

***