In early 2013 a worldwide brute-force attack struck WordPress installations on virtually every web host in existence around the world.

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

(WordPress is often the target of malicious attacks by hackers)

On March 11, 2014, technology sites began reporting that over 160,000+ legitimate WordPress web sites had been hacked.

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

As described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever global attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to start questioning just how safe and secure the WordPress platform is for running their sites.

Being the world’s most popular CMS makes WordPress an obvious target for hacker attacks. 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 at all 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 scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and it’s getting worse.

It’s probably safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time … regardless of the web platform you use!

Since it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before a malicious user will try to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”How Can Open Source Applications Remain Protected From Hacking?”

Many people will often try to argue that WordPress cannot be a safe platform for running websites because it’s a freely available open source program.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If everyone can view the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download all of the code and study every line, searching for security weaknesses 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 vulnerabilities or weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source software platform actually makes it more secure in many ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of a large volunteer community comprised 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 …

(A volunteer community of hundreds of web developers around the world is responsible for building, maintaining and updating WordPress. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves through the effort of a huge community working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of minds who, at any one time, are focused on improving the code, fixing bugs and making it safer for every user …

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

As soon as a security problem is identified by developers or users, these are reported in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core development team …

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

The WordPress community support system is very responsive and anybody can contribute to improving the software.

For example:

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

This is why the WordPress community is constantly releasing new version updates, and why you continually need to keep your site regularly maintained …

(WordPress continually releases new updates to address any security weaknesses found)

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an open source platform like WordPress is that users benefit from a large community of developers who continually contribute to make the code more secure. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” software applications are built by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, software maintenance, bug fixes and updates.

WordPress is free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the platform. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users a free software that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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

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

Other studies show that, because WordPress is easy to use and keep up-to-date, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, WordPress sites had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

(Blog Defender – CMS Tests. Source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame WordPress When Things Go Wrong

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

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” which is published by security vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises, most webmasters have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with compromises.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t know how their sites were compromised after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern is the fact that many security-related problems arise from website owners forgetting to update their WordPress software to a newer version …

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

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only between 20% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while 70% – 80% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

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

Like many modern web applications, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security problems that may arise. Improving software security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, 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 caused the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime into the online discussion.

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 around the world choose WordPress to build their web presence, including banks, leading brands, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors That Can Affect Website Security

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

• No platform is completely safe from hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The main security risk in all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security systems need to be frequently monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Webhosting setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting servers are only as safe as the least secure site on the grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on the server become vulnerable to being hacked also.

There’s No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Use WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is as secure as most other leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you remember to implement basic website security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there’s no reason to avoid using WordPress to drive your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks see this article:  Protecting Your WordPress Site From Brute Force Attacks

A compromised site provides hackers with a resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• Hide Your WordPress Site From Hackers

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version make sure you back up your website fully before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many free and paid plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Backup, Clone & Protect Your WP Website With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

References Used In This Article

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, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress please see other posts we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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