In April 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to a worldwide brute-force attack.

These attacks were caused by networks of infected computers programmed to attack other installations, also commonly known as “botnets”.

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

In March 2014, many technology sites began reporting that 162,000 WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. 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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to ask just how secure WordPress is as a software for building and running an online presence.

WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers, due to its popularity. But should you really 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 choose WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and the situation is getting worse.

You can safely 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 you use!

Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but when before a malicious user will attempt to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Are “Open Source” Programs Secure?

Many people will often try to argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running websites and blogs because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can examine the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily obtain the code and go through every line in detail, looking for weaknesses and vulnerabilities that could be exploited …

(It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website will be targeted by malicious hackers … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is free and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for holes and weaknesses that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source software platform actually makes it more secure in several ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of an open volunteer community comprised of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help to improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a huge community of thousands of developers worldwide is responsible for keeping the core application code updated. Source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves through the effort of a huge 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, identifying and fixing security issues and making it safer for every user …

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

As soon as a security vulnerability is identified by developers or users, these are normally recorded in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

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

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

For example:

• If you come across bugs or a security vulnerability, you can report these by emailing 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 sites and blogs frequently up-to-date …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to address security issues)

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS 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 make the software more secure. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS application is developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, software maintenance, bug fixes and software fixes.

WordPress is 100% 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 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 applications, research shows that the WordPress CMS 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 each of these CMS platforms …

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

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is easy to use and to update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, WordPress sites had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

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

It’s Easier To Blame Technology When Things Go Wrong

If someone compromises the security of your WordPress site, don’t be too 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 website owners are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with compromised web security.

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

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

Of more immediate concern for WordPress users, however, is the fact that most security-related issues result from site owners simply not updating their CMS software to the latest version …

(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 65% – 80% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by third-party developers …

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

Like many modern web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly to deal with new security vulnerabilities that may arise. Improving software 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 Organizations!

The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security 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” posted 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 presence online, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect WordPress Blog Security

Other factors that can affect WP site security include areas like:

• 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 biggest threat in all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes require regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting are only as secure as the least secure website on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on that server are potentially vulnerable.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Choosing WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most other leading web platforms being used by businesses of all sizes to build their presence online. As long as you commit to implementing basic web security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly updated, there’s no reason to avoid using WordPress for your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  10 Security Measures That Can Help To Prevent Brute Force Attacks On Your WordPress Site

A compromised web site offers malicious users with a platform to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and use your website to defraud others. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• How To Protect Your WordPress Website From Bots & Hackers

If you are using outdated versions of WordPress remember to make a 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 everything to its former settings.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Back Up, Duplicate And Protect Your WordPress Website With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

Article References

The facts quoted above 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 issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business web site please see other articles we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

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