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

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

(Powering millions of websites and blogs worldwide makes WordPress an obvious target for malicious attacks by hackers)

In March 2014, many technology sites began reporting that 160,000+ legitimate WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Image: 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 described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites 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 ask just how secure WordPress is as a software for building and running their sites.

Being the world’s most used content management system makes WordPress a target for attempted attacks by malicious users. But do you really 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 choose WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and this is only going to get worse.

It’s probably 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 someone will try to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Is “Open Source” Safe From Hacking?

Some people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running websites because it’s a freely available open source program.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can view the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily get hold of all of the code and go through every single line in great detail, searching for holes and weaknesses in the code that can be exploited …

(It’s not a matter of if, but when before your website is targeted by malicious 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 vulnerabilities or weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source application actually makes it a whole lot more secure in several ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by a global community consisting of hundreds of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, the core application is built, maintained and updated by a large community of developers. Screenshot: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of a huge community working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from hundreds of web developers, designers and users who, at any one time, are focused on improving the code and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(WordPress is built by an open community of web developers. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

As soon as any security issues are discovered by developers or users, these are then reported in user forums and addressed by the WordPress development team …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by a global community community of web developers and users. Image: make.wordpress.org)

The WordPress community support system is very responsive and anyone can contribute to the process of getting vulnerabilities plugged.

For example:

• If you come across bugs and security exploits, you can report these by emailing security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WP plugin, you can also report these by notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is why the WordPress community releases new updates regularly, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress site regularly up-to-date …

(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to plug any security exploits found)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

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, proprietary or “closed-source” CMS platforms are typically 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 100% free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the technology. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users a free CMS application that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms - 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 platforms during a given period …

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

Other studies also indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to keep updated, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

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

It’s Not WordPress’ Fault

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

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

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

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

Of immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security-related problems come from users running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

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

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only between 25% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

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

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

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Are Using It!

The amount of misinformation online about how secure WordPress is has even caused 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 around the world use WordPress to build their websites, including banks, large organizations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues That Can Affect Blog Security

Other research on issues that play a role in website security point to factors such as:

• No platform is completely protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The biggest security risk of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security processes need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting are only as safe as the least safe website on the hosting grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on your server can potentially become 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 to build their presence online. As long as you implement basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) up-to-date, there is no reason not to use WordPress.

WordPress Security – Tips

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

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

• Blog Defender Security Plugin

If you are using outdated WordPress versions make sure you make a full site backup before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Duplicate And Protect Your WP Sites With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

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 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 articles or tutorials are published.

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