WordPress Security Explained

Learn why WordPress is a secure web platform for building and running your business online …

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

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

WordPress is the world's most used content management system making it a target for hacking attacks

(WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attacks by hackers, due to its popularity)

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

Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?

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

When attacks on WordPress sites happen, it’s natural for people to start questioning if WordPress really is a secure application for running websites.

WordPress is frequently the target of attacks by hackers. 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 choose WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the 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 massive, and the situation is only going to get worse.

You can safely assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time … regardless of the web platform your website has been built with!

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?

Is An “Open Source” Software Safe?

Many people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for running a business online because it is “open source” and freely available program.

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

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

It's not a matter of if, but when before someone will try to hack your website ... WordPress or no WordPress!

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone tries to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is a free application and hackers can easily go through the code looking for holes or weaknesses that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source software platform actually makes it more secure in a number of ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a volunteer community consisting of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help to improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

With WordPress, an open volunteer community of thousands of developers is responsible for keeping the code up-to-date.

(WordPress is built, maintained and updated by a large community of volunteers worldwide. Screenshot source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves through the effort of a global community working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from thousands of individuals dedicated to improving the code and making WordPress safer for every user …

WordPress is built by a global community of WordPress users

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by an open community of volunteers. Image: make.wordpress.org)

The moment any security holes are discovered by developers or users, these are then recorded in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

WordPress is continually being improved by a global community community of users and developers

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

The WordPress community support system is solid and formidable and anybody can help contribute to the process of fixing security issues.

For example:

  • If you come across bugs or security holes, you can report these by sending an email to security@wordpress.org.
  • If you find any issues in a WordPress plugin, you can also report these by notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is one of the reasons why the WordPress community releases new security updates on a regular basis, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs regularly updated …

WordPress continually releases new updates to address security exploits

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

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

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

The WordPress CMS is free to download, use and modify, and hundreds 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 a completely free CMS software that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, research shows that the WordPress CMS is safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows the number of security vulnerabilities found in each of these open source CMS platforms …

National Vulnerability Database - Security Vulnerabilities IN CMS Applications

(WordPress experiences less security vulnerabilities than other leading CMS platforms. Image: National Vulnerability Database)

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

BlogDefender.com - CMS Tests

(BlogDefender.com – CMS Tests. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

Whenever WordPress sites are subjected to brute-force attacks, users shouldn’t be too quick to place the blame on WordPress.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, 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 in this report didn’t know how their sites had been compromised by hackers after an attack …

Many webmasters don't even know how their websites were hacked.

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that most security problems seem to be related to website owners simply not updating their WordPress software to the latest version …

Many WordPress sites use outdated versions.

(Many WordPress users have not upgraded their WordPress software. 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 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

WP Security Issues

(WP Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like many software applications, WordPress is updated regularly to deal with new security risks that may arise. Improving software security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins updated to the latest version.

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Use It!

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

In a post 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 use WordPress to build their websites, including banks, global corporations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors Affecting WP Security

Other areas that can affect security include issues like:

  • No platform is protected from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to using software that is out of date.
  • The biggest security threat of all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security recommendations.
  • Lack of constant monitoring. All security systems need to be frequently monitored, tested, updated and improved.
  • Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting accounts are only as secure as the least secure website on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then every site on the server becomes vulnerable to being hacked also.

There Is 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 security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) updated, there is really no reason why you shouldn’t use WordPress for your web site or blog.

Practical Tip

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

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

An unsecured web site presents hackers with a valuable platform to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and use your site to steal information from online users. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets. Learn more about it here:

If you are using outdated WordPress versions make sure you back up everything before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. 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. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Backup, Duplicate & Protect Your WP Site With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

Important Info

References Used In This Article

The above facts were sourced from the following sites:

Hopefully, this article has given you 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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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group