In early 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to global-scale brute force attacks.

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

(WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS making it a target for hackers)

On March 11, 2014, many technology sites began reporting that 160,000+ legitimate WordPress web 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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When brute force attacks on WordPress sites increase in frequency, it’s natural for people to question just how safe and secure WordPress is as a platform for building and running their websites.

WordPress powers millions of websites worldwide, making it a natural target for hackers. But do you need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure web platform?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and this is getting worse.

You can safely assume that if you haven’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 when before your website is targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”How Can Open Source Software Applications Be Kept Safe From Hackers?”

Many people argue that WordPress is not a secure platform for building and running a web presence because it’s “open source” and freely available program.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If everyone can access the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download all of the code and study all of it in detail, looking for vulnerabilities that they could exploit …

(It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before a malicious user will attempt 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 looking for holes or vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open platform actually makes it a lot more secure in many ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by an open volunteer community consisting of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, the core application is built, maintained and updated by a huge community of web developers. Image: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves largely 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 are dedicated to improving the code, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by an open community of users. Source: WordPress.org)

The moment any security holes are identified by developers or users, these are logged in user forums and addressed by the WordPress development team …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by thousands of committed individuals community of developers and users. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anybody can contribute to the improvement of the platform.

For example:

• If you discover bugs or security weaknesses, 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 notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is the reason why WordPress releases new updates regularly, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs regularly updated …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to address any security weaknesses found)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Platforms

Contrast the benefits of using an open source CMS platform like WordPress with proprietary platforms where often a small team with limited resources is responsible for developing, monitoring and improving software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will quickly understand the value and advantages of using WordPress to power your websites and blogs on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the software. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you a completely free CMS application that you can download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, there is valid research to support the fact that the WordPress CMS is actually safer than other Open Source CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla.

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

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

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is easy to use and to update, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites run on WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

(WordPress is more secure than other CMS platforms. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Should Not Be Blamed

When WordPress sites get attacked, 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,” which is published by a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises called StopBadware and security vendor Commtouch, most website owners have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

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

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

Of immediate concern, however, is the fact that most security issues seem to be related to site owners forgetting to update their WordPress software to the latest version …

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

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only around between 20% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

(WP Security Issues. Screenshot: WebDesign.org)

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

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security has even led Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime into the online discussion.

In a post entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” posted 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 use WordPress to build their web presence, including banks, leading brands, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting WP Blog Security

Other issues that can affect site security include areas like:

• No platform is immune to security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main security vulnerability in all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security systems need to be constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Hosting setup. For example, sites on shared hosting servers are only as safe as the least secure site on the grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then every site on your server becomes vulnerable.

There’s 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 implement basic website security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly updated, 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:  Ten Security Measures That Can Help To Prevent Brute-Force Attacks On Your WordPress Website

A vulnerable blog offers malicious users with a platform for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Prevent Malicious Attacks On Your WP Web Site By Hackers With Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress Websites

If you are using outdated versions of WordPress make sure you back up everything before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to back up your files manually, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate And Keep Your WP Site Protected With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

Article References

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 issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business website please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

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