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

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

(Powering millions of websites worldwide makes WordPress a target for attempted hacker attacks)

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

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. 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)

According to security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-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 safe software for running a business web presence.

Powering millions of websites worldwide makes WordPress an obvious target for hacking. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure platform for building your business presence online?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should definitely consider using WordPress if you have any concerns 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 things are only going to get 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 your website has been built with!

Since it’s not a matter of if, but 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 Secure Are “Open Source” Software Applications?

Some people will often argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for running a web presence because its open source code means that anyone can view how the program was built.

Open-source CMS platforms like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to use and anyone can view 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 the code and go through every line, looking for security weaknesses that could be exploited …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website is targeted by hackers … WordPress or no WordPress!)

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

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of a global volunteer community consisting of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(The WordPress platform is built, maintained and updated by a large community of thousands of volunteers. Source: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves through the effort of a huge community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from thousands of minds who are dedicated to improving the software and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(WordPress is built by a global community of users. Image: make.wordpress.org)

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

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by a global community community of users and developers. Screenshot image: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system is solid and formidable and anyone can contribute to the process of addressing security issues.

For example:

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

This is the reason why the WordPress community releases new version updates on a regular basis, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs regularly up-to-date …

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

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Applications

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 make the software more secure. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” software applications are developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, maintenance services, bug fixes and software fixes.

WordPress is free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the technology. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you a free software that you can download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in each of these open source platforms during a given period …

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

Other studies show that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to keep up-to-date, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites run on WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are not as exposed to security risks as other CMS platform users. Source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame The WordPress CMS

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

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises called StopBadware and security vendor Commtouch, many webmasters are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t know how their sites were compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that many security issues seem to be related to users running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many WordPress users have not updated their software. Image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only 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 extensions created by 3rd-party developers …

(WP Security Issues. Source: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust software applications, WordPress is regularly updated in order to address new security issues that may arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress.

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Use It!

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

In an article 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, including banks, large organizations and e-commerce sites choose 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 completely protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The main weakness in all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes need constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting are only as secure as the least secure site on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then all sites on that server are potentially vulnerable to hacking also.

There Is 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 continue to implement basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) up-to-date, there is really no reason why you should not choose WordPress for your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  Ten Ways To Prevent Brute Force Attacks On Your WordPress Site Or Blog

A compromised web site presents malicious users with a resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and use your site to steal information from others. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and bots. Go here to learn more:

• Secure Your WordPress Website From Botnets And Hackers With Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are currently using an older version of WordPress remember to back up your WordPress files before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. 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 back up your site manually, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Backup, Clone & Protect Your WP Web Sites 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 build a better business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress please click on links to visit other posts published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.

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