In 2013 a worldwide brute force attack began hitting WordPress installations across virtually every host server in existence.

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

(WordPress powers millions of websites worldwide, making it a target for hacking)

On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Source: 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 reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever brute-force attacks on WordPress sites happen on a global scale, it’s natural for website owners to start asking if WordPress really is a safe platform for building and running their sites.

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

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 with some facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and things are only going to get 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 does attempt 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 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 Programs?

Many people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for running websites because its open source code means that anyone can view how the program runs.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can examine the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily obtain all of the code and study it in detail, looking for vulnerabilities in the code that could be exploited …

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

While it’s true that WordPress is free and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for holes and weaknesses they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open platform actually makes it a lot more secure in several ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by a large volunteer community comprised of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(WordPress is built, maintained and updated by a community of hundreds of developers around the world. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of individuals who, at any one time, are focused on improving the code and making it safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a global community of volunteer members. Source: make.wordpress.org)

As soon as any security issue is discovered by developers or users, these are noted in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core development team …

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

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

For example:

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

This is one of the reasons why the WordPress team releases new updates so often, and why you need to keep your WordPress site regularly updated …

(WordPress continually releases new version updates to address any security exploits found)

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

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the technology. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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

For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities discovered in popular platforms during a given period …

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

Other research shows that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to maintain, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites run on WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are not as exposed to vulnerabilities as other CMS platform users. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame WordPress

When WordPress sites get subjected to brute-force attacks, don’t be too quick to place the blame on 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 website owners have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with security compromises.

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

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

Of more immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security issues seem to be related to site owners not upgrading their WordPress software to a newer version …

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

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only around between 25% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are 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. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like many modern software platforms, WordPress is updated regularly to deal with new security vulnerabilities that can arise. Improving software security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, plugins, and themes updated to the latest version.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

The amount of misinformation 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” 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 use WordPress to build their websites, including banks, leading brands, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors That Can Affect WordPress Website Security

Other issues that can affect security include things such as:

• No platform is safe from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The biggest security weakness in all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes require regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Hosting server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting are only as secure as the least secure site on the grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on the server are potentially vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Choose WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you commit to implementing basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) updated, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use WordPress to drive your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  10 Security Measures That Can Prevent Brute Force Attacks On WordPress

A compromised site presents hackers with a valuable resource for launching denial of service attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress Websites & Blogs makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• Make Your Blogs Invisible To Hackers With Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are using older versions of WordPress remember to 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 things back to their previous settings.

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 site backups here: Backup, Clone & Protect Your WP Web Sites With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

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 problems 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 please click on links to visit other articles we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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