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

These attacks were caused by computer networks infected with malware and programmed to attack other vulnerable installations, also commonly known as “botnets”.

(Being the world’s most used content management system makes WordPress an obvious target for malicious attempts by hackers)

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

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

According to leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites 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 website owners to start questioning just how secure WordPress is as a platform for running websites.

WordPress powers millions of sites around the world, making it a target for attacks by malicious users. But should you really be concerned about WordPress as being a secure web platform?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should definitely consider using WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and this is only going to get 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 you use!

Since it’s not a matter of if, but when before your website is targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”Isn’t Open Source Software Unsafe?”

Many people argue that WordPress should not be used for running a website or blog because its open source code means that anyone can view how the application runs.

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

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

(It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone will attempt to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is free and hackers can easily go through the code searching for holes and vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source software platform actually makes it a lot more secure in many ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of an open community of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, the core application is built, maintained and updated by a community of web developers around the world. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves largely through the effort of a huge volunteer community working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from hundreds of minds who are dedicated to improving the code and making WordPress safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by an open community of volunteer web developers. Source: WordPress.org)

As soon as security issues are discovered by developers or users, these are then noted in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core development team …

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

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anybody can contribute to the process of addressing vulnerabilities.

For example:

• If you notice bugs or security holes, 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 the WordPress community is constantly releasing new updates, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs updated and maintained …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary Platforms

Compare the benefits of using an open source CMS platform like WordPress with proprietary technologies where often the responsibility for maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a much smaller team of developers with limited resources and you will very quickly understand the value of using WordPress to power your websites and blogs on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is free to download, modify and use, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the technology. 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 Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in each of these open source CMS platforms …

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

Other studies show that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to update, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites run on WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are not as exposed to threats as other CMS platform users. Source: BlogDefender.com)

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

If someone hacks into your WordPress site, don’t be too quick to blame the WordPress CMS platform.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, most website owners have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with security compromises.

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

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

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

(Many WordPress users have not updated their WP software. Image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined 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% – 85% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

(WordPress Security Issues. Source: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust web platforms, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security risks that may arise. Improving software security is always a 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 That Uses It!

The amount of misinformation online about how secure WordPress is has even led Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime in and reply to posts online.

In an article 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 around the world choose WordPress to build their web presence, including banks, large organizations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors Affecting Security

Other studies on issues that affect website security point to factors like:

• No platform is protected from hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The biggest security threat of all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security systems need to be constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Webhosting setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting accounts are only as secure as the least safe website on the grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on the 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 remember to implement basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) up-to-date, there is no reason why you should not choose WordPress.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

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

An unsecured web site offers hackers with a valuable resource for launching denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• How To Prevent Malicious Cyber Attacks On Your WordPress Site By Hackers And Bots

If you are using older versions of WordPress make sure to back up your website fully before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to back up your data manually, there are a number of free and paid WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate And Keep Your WP Site Protected With Backup Creator WP Plugin

References Used In This Article

For more information on the above, see the following sources:

• 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 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 other articles we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

***