In April 2013 a global brute force attack hit WordPress installations across almost every host server in existence.

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

(WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS making it an obvious target for hackers)

In March 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress web sites had been hacked.

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Image: 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)

According to security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When brute-force attacks on WordPress sites happen, it’s natural for website owners to question just how secure WordPress is as a software for building and running their sites.

WordPress powers millions of websites and blogs around the world, making it a natural target for hacking. But do you need to 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 definitely choose WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

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

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

It’s 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 when before someone attempts to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Are “Open Source” Software Applications Safe?

Many people will often argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for running a web presence because it’s a freely available open source software program.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can access the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download all of the code and go through it, searching for security holes in the code that can be exploited …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website will be targeted by 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 holes and vulnerabilities they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in several ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a huge community comprised of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(An open volunteer community maintain and update. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress evolves largely through the effort of thousands of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users dedicated to improving the software, identifying and fixing security holes and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by an open community of volunteers. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

The moment any security vulnerabilities are discovered by developers or users, these are then recorded in user forums and addressed by the WordPress developers …

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

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

For example:

• If you notice bugs or a security weakness, you can report these by emailing security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a plugin, you can report these by sending an email to plugins@wordpress.org.

This is one of the reasons why WordPress is constantly releasing new updates, and why you continually need to keep your site frequently up-to-date …

(WordPress continually releases new updates to plug security vulnerabilities)

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

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

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, 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 how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in popular CMS platforms …

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

Other studies also indicate that, because WordPress is easy to use and update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

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

It’s Not WordPress’ Fault

If someone breaks into your WordPress site, don’t be quick to place the blame on WordPress.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” which is published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, most webmasters are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or deal with compromises.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t know how their sites had been compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern for WordPress users, is the fact that most security issues seem to be related to website owners running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

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

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while 70% – 80% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by third-party developers …

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

Like many software platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security risks that may arise. Improving software security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins up-to-date.

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 in and reply to posts online.

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

Other Factors That Can Affect WordPress Blog Security

Other areas that can affect WordPress website security include factors such as:

• No platform is completely safe from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main security vulnerability in all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes require constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting are only as safe as the least safe site on the grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site broken into, then every site on that shared server becomes vulnerable to being hacked also.

There Is No Reason Not To Choose WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you remember to implement basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) up-to-date, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use WordPress to power your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  How To Protect Your WordPress Website From Brute Force Attacks

A vulnerable web site provides malicious users with a valuable resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to bot and hacker attacks. Learn more about this plugin here:

• How To Prevent Malicious Attacks On Your WP Web Site By Hackers & Bots With Blog Defender Security Plugin

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version remember to back up your WordPress website before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore everything to its former state.

If you don’t want to back up your data manually, there are a number of free and paid plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Backup, Duplicate & Keep Your WP Websites And Blogs Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

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, the above post has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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