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

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

(WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers)

In March 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that over 162,000 WordPress sites had been hacked.

(Over 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 cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever brute force attacks on WordPress sites seem to increase, it’s natural for website owners to question if WordPress really is a safe platform for building and running a business web presence.

Powering millions of sites worldwide makes WordPress a target for hacker attacks. 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 choose WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at 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 it’s getting worse.

It’s probably safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone attempts to hack into your site … regardless of the web platform your website has been built with!

Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before a malicious user will attempt to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”How Can Open Source Programs Be Kept Safe From Hackers?”

Some people often argue that WordPress is not a secure platform for building and running websites or blogs because it is “open source” and freely available application.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If everyone can examine the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain all of the code and study every line in detail, looking for security holes they can exploit …

(It’s not 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 free to download and hackers can easily go through the code searching for security holes and vulnerabilities that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open software platform actually makes it more secure in several ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a global volunteer community that consists of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a huge volunteer community of hundreds of developers is responsible for keeping the software code up-to-date. Image: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves largely through the effort of thousands of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from hundreds of minds who are dedicated to improving the code and making WordPress safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by a global community of experienced web developers. Source: WordPress.org)

The moment any security problems are discovered by developers or users, these are normally noted in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core development team …

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

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

For example:

• If you come across bugs and a security vulnerability, you can report these by emailing security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WP plugin, you can report these by sending an email to plugins@wordpress.org.

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

(WordPress continually releases new updates to plug any security issues found)

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an ”open” platform like WordPress is that users benefit from a large community of developers who continually contribute to make the code more secure. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” software application would normally be developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, software maintenance, bug fixes and software fixes.

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, 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 you software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

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

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

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

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

It’s Easier To Blame Technology When Things Go Wrong

If someone compromises the security of your WordPress site, don’t be too quick to place the blame on the WordPress CMS platform.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, many webmasters have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with compromised web security.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t know how their sites had been compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern for WordPress users, however, is the fact that most security-related problems result from website owners not upgrading their WordPress software to a newer version …

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

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only around between 25% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while 65% – 85% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by 3rd-party developers …

(WordPress Security Issues. Image source: WebDesign.org)

Like many software applications, WordPress is regularly updated in order to deal with new security threats that could arise. Improving software security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, plugins, and themes updated to the latest version.

WordPress Is Secure – Just Ask Any Bank Using It!

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

In a post entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” published 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, large organizations and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their presence online, not just bloggers.

Other Issues That Can Affect Security

Other areas that can affect security include:

• No platform is protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using software that is out of date.
• The main threat of 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. Security systems need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting accounts are only as safe 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 that shared server is potentially vulnerable.

There’s No Reason Why You Should Not Choose WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you remember to implement basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) up-to-date, there’s no reason to avoid using WordPress.

WordPress Security – Tips

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

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

• Prevent Malicious Attacks On Your WordPress Website By Bots & Hackers With Blog Defender

If you are using older WordPress versions remember to back up your WordPress site fully 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 things back to their previous configuration.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many free and paid WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Backup, Copy & Protect Your WordPress Sites With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

References Used In This Article

For more information on the above, see the following sources:

• 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 get better results 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 content is published.

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