In April 2013 a worldwide brute-force attack hit WordPress installations on virtually every WP host server in existence.

These attacks were caused by computers infected with viruses and programmed to attack other installations (called “botnets”).

(WordPress often is targeted by hackers)

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

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Image source: 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 leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When attacks on WordPress sites are reported in the media, it’s natural for people to start asking just how secure WordPress is as a platform for building and running websites.

WordPress is the world’s most used content management system making it an obvious target for hacking attempts. 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 by looking at some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and it’s getting worse.

It’s safe to assume that if you haven’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 your website has been built with!

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

Is An “Open Source” Software Really Safe?

Some people will often try and argue that WordPress cannot be a secure platform for running websites because it is “open source” and freely available software program.

Open source CMS software like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to use and anyone can have access to the underlying 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 also easily download the code and study it in detail, looking for security weaknesses that could be exploited …

(It’s not a matter of if, but when before your website is targeted by 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 security weaknesses or vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source software platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in many ways.

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

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

WordPress evolves through the effort of a huge volunteer community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from thousands of minds who, at any one time, are focused on improving the code, identifying and fixing security holes and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by a large community of web developers. Screenshot source: make.wordpress.org)

The moment that any security problem is discovered by developers or users, these are reported in user forums and addressed by the WordPress development team …

(WordPress is continually being improved by thousands of committed individuals community of users and web developers. Source: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anybody can contribute to the process of getting vulnerabilities plugged.

For example:

If you come across bugs or security vulnerabilities, 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 emailing plugins@wordpress.org.

This is why the WordPress community is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you continually need to keep your sites and blogs updated …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to address security holes)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Applications

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” CMS platforms are typically 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 free to download, modify and use, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the technology. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users a free application that they can download, use and modify as they 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, research shows that WordPress is actually safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in popular open source platforms during a certain period …

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

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to keep updated, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites run on WordPress had less exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are not as exposed to security vulnerabilities as other CMS platform users. Image source: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Should Not Be Blamed

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

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

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t know how their websites had been hacked after an attack …

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

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

(Many security issues come from sites running outdated WordPress versions. 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 core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

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

Like many web applications, WordPress is regularly updated in order to address new security issues that may arise. Improving security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is has even caused the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime into the debate.

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

Other Areas Affecting WordPress Security

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

No platform is safe from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
The main vulnerability 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 processes require frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
Server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting accounts are only as safe as the least secure site on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on that server become vulnerable.

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

As you can see, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you implement basic website security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) up-to-date, there’s no reason not to choose WordPress.

WordPress Security – Tips

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

A vulnerable website presents malicious users with a valuable resource for launching denial of service attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets. Learn more about it here:

How To Prevent Malicious Attacks On Your WordPress Website By Bots & Hackers With Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are currently using an older WordPress version remember to make a complete backup before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to back up your site manually, there are many plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Duplicate And Protect Your WordPress Sites With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

References Used In This Article

The statistics quoted above were referenced from various sources, including those listed below:

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 the WP software please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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Tag: Web Security