In April 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 computers with security vulnerabilities).

(WordPress often comes under attack by hackers)

In March 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that over 162,000 legitimate WordPress web sites had been hacked.

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

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

When worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to question if WordPress really is a safe platform for building and running an online presence.

Being the world’s most popular CMS makes WordPress a target for attempted hacking attacks. 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 consider using WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and the situation is only going to get worse.

You can safely 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 a matter of when before your website will be targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”How Can Open Source Programs Keep Hackers Away?”

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

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily obtain the code and go through every single line in detail, searching for holes and weaknesses they can exploit …

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

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

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

(With WordPress, a huge volunteer community of developers is responsible for keeping the core application updated. Source: make.wordpress.org)

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

(WordPress is built and maintained by an open community of volunteers. Screenshot: make.wordpress.org)

The moment that a security hole is identified by developers or users, the WordPress core developers are then notified …

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

The WordPress community support system is solid and formidable and anybody can help contribute to improving the platform.

For example:

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

This is the reason why the WordPress team releases new updates so often, and why you need to keep your WordPress site updated …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary Applications

Contrast what we have just discussed above with proprietary technologies where often a much smaller team with limited resources is responsible for developing, monitoring and improving software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will quickly realize the value of using WordPress to run your web presence on a secure platform.

WordPress is 100% free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the software. 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 CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

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

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

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

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

WordPress Should Not Be Blamed

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

According to security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, a large number of webmasters have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to 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 …

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that many security-related issues arise from users forgetting to update their CMS software to the latest version …

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

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only between 25% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while 65% – 80% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

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

Like all robust web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly to address new security problems that can 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 Organizations!

The amount of misinformation about WordPress security has even led the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, 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 …

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, including banks, large organizations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their presence online, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting Site Security

Other areas that can affect security include factors like:

• No platform is protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main weakness of all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security systems need to be frequently monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Hosting setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting accounts are only as safe as the least secure site on the hosting grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then every site on your server is potentially vulnerable to hacking also.

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

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you continue to implement basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) updated, there’s no reason not to use WordPress to run 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 Ways To Help Prevent Brute Force Attacks On WordPress

An unsecured web site offers malicious users with a valuable platform for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to botnet and hacker attacks. Go here to learn more:

• Prevent Malicious Attacks On Your WordPress Blogs From Hackers And Bots With Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress

If you are currently using an older version of WordPress remember to back up your WordPress website fully before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Back Up, Copy And Keep Your WP Websites Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

Article 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, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To learn more about using WordPress please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.

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