In April 2013 a global brute-force attack hit WordPress installations across virtually every WP hosting server in existence.

These attacks were caused by botnets (computer networks infected with malware and programmed to attack other vulnerable sites).

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

On March 11, 2014, technology sites reported that over 162,000 WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.

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

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 WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to start questioning if WordPress really is a secure application for building and running an online presence.

WordPress powers millions of sites worldwide, which makes it a natural target for hacking attempts. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure platform for building your business website?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked 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 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 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?

How Secure Are “Open Source” Software Applications?

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

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can access the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain all of the code and go through every single line in detail, searching for security holes that can be exploited …

(It’s not a matter of if, but when before a malicious user tries to hack your website … 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 or vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open software platform actually makes it a lot more secure in many ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by an open community of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a huge volunteer community of developers is responsible for keeping the platform up-to-date. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from hundreds of individuals dedicated to improving the software, identifying and fixing security holes and making it safer for every user …

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

The moment that a security hole is identified by developers or users, these are immediately recorded in user forums and addressed by the WordPress development team …

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

The WordPress community support system is solid and formidable and anyone can help contribute to securing the software.

For example:

• If you find bugs or security issues, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a plugin, you can also report these by notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is one of the reasons why the core development team releases new updates on a regular basis, and why you continually need to keep your sites and blogs up-to-date …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

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

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the software. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as you 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 systems, there is valid research showing 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 the number of security vulnerabilities found in popular open source platforms during a certain period …

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

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

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

It’s Not WordPress’ Fault

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

According to security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, many website owners are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with security compromises.

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t know how their sites were compromised after an attack …

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

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

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated version of WordPress. Screenshot image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while 70% – 75% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

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

Like all robust web applications, WordPress is regularly updated in order to address new security issues that could arise. Improving software security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins up-to-date.

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Use 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 a blog 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, including banks, leading brands and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers.

Other Issues That Can Affect Security

Other issues that can affect security include:

• No platform is immune to hackers. 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. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes need to be frequently monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting are only as secure as the least safe site on the grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then every site on the shared server can potentially become vulnerable.

There’s No Reason Not To Use WordPress

As you can see, 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.) regularly up-to-date, there’s really no reason not to use WordPress.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  10 Security Measures That Can Help Prevent Brute-Force Attacks On Your WordPress Site

A compromised site presents hackers with a valuable resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and use your site to defraud others. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to bot and hacker attacks. Learn more about it here:

• Blog Defender Review – How To Make Your Blogs Invisible To Botnets And Hackers

If you are currently using an older version of WordPress remember to make a full site backup before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore everything to its former state.

If you don’t want to back up your site manually, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate And Keep Your WP Web Sites Protected 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 web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business website or blog please see other articles we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

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