In 2013 a worldwide brute force attack struck WordPress installations across almost every host server in existence.

These attacks were caused by botnets (computer networks infected with viruses and programmed to attack other sites with security vulnerabilities).

(WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system making it a frequent target for hacking attempts)

On March 11, 2014, many technology sites reported that 162,000 legitimate WordPress web sites had been hacked.

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

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

Whenever global brute-force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to start questioning just how secure WordPress is as an application for running their sites.

WordPress is often the target of malicious attacks by hackers, due to its popularity. But should you really be concerned about WordPress as a secure web platform?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at 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 massive, and this is 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 you use!

Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website will be targeted by hackers, 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 is not a safe platform for building and running a website or blog because its open source code means that anyone can view how the program works.

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can examine the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download all of the code and go through it in great detail, looking for security holes that they can exploit …

(It’s not a matter of if, but when before a malicious user attempts to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is free and hackers can easily go through the code looking for security weaknesses and vulnerabilities they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in a number of ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of a volunteer community that consists of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, an open community of thousands of web developers is responsible for keeping the software platform updated. Image: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves through the effort of hundreds of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users who are dedicated to improving the software, identifying and fixing security issues and making WordPress safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by an open community of volunteer web developers. Image: WordPress.org)

As soon as any security vulnerability is discovered by developers or users, the WordPress core development team are then made aware of it …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by a huge community community of developers and users. Image: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anybody can help contribute to securing the platform.

For example:

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

This is why the WordPress community releases new version updates so frequently, and why you need to keep your sites and blogs updated …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to address security holes)

WordPress CMS 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 make the software more secure. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” software application is normally built 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 thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the platform. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users a completely free CMS application that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were found in popular open source platforms during a given period …

(National Vulnerability Database – Security Vulnerabilities IN CMS Platforms. Screenshot image: National Vulnerability Database)

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

(WordPress users are less exposed to threats than other CMS platform users. Image: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Should Not Be Blamed

When WordPress sites are attacked en masse, you shouldn’t be too quick to place the blame on WordPress.

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, a large number of website owners are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with web security compromises.

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

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

Of more immediate concern for WordPress users, however, is the fact that many security-related issues come from users running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many WordPress users have not upgraded their WP software. Screenshot source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

(WP Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like many web applications, WordPress is regularly updated to deal with new security risks that could arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress software, plugins, themes, etc..

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

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 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, including banks, global corporations and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting WordPress Blog Security

Other factors that can affect WP security include:

• No platform is completely safe from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main threat in all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security processes require regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting accounts are only as safe as the least safe site on the grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then every site on that server can potentially become vulnerable to hacking also.

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

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you commit to implementing basic security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their chosen web platform) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) up-to-date, there’s really no reason to avoid using WordPress to power your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

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

A compromised website offers malicious users with a valuable resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to bots and hackers. Learn more about this plugin here:

• How To Prevent Hackers From Finding Your Web Sites With Blog Defender

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version make sure to back up everything 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 perform manual backups, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Back Up, Copy & Keep Your WP Website Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

References

The above facts were referenced from various sources, including those listed 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 click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

***