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

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

(WordPress is the world’s most used CMS which makes it a target for hacker attacks)

In March 2014, many leading technology sites reported that 162,000 legitimate WordPress web sites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When attacks on WordPress sites are reported in the media, it’s natural for website owners to start questioning just how secure WordPress is as a software for running websites.

WordPress powers millions of websites worldwide, which makes it an obvious target for malicious attempts by hackers. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as 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 are concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

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

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

It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’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 a matter of when before your website will be targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

The “Open Source” Software Argument

Many people will often try and argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running a business online because it’s “open source” and freely available software program.

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can access the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily get hold of the code and go through every line in detail, searching for security weaknesses in the code that they can exploit …

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

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

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

(WordPress is built, maintained and updated by a community of volunteers worldwide. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of hundreds of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from thousands of minds who, at any one time, are focused on improving the application, fixing bugs and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

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

As soon as any security issues are identified by developers or users, these are immediately logged in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is solid and formidable and anybody can help contribute to the process of getting vulnerabilities plugged.

For example:

• If you come across bugs and a security weakness, 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 one of the reasons why the core development team releases new security updates so often, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress site updated …

(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to address security holes)

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

Contrast what we have just discussed above with proprietary CMS platforms where often a smaller team with limited resources is responsible for developing, monitoring and maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will quickly understand the value and advantages of using WordPress to power your website or blog on a secure platform.

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 users a free application that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in popular CMS platforms …

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

Other research shows that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, WordPress sites had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

(WordPress is more secure than other leading CMS platforms. Image: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame The Platform

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

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, a large number of website owners are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or deal with compromised web security.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their websites were compromised after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern, however, is the fact that most security-related problems arise from users simply not updating their CMS software to the latest version …

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

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

(WordPress Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like many modern software applications, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security vulnerabilities that could arise. Improving software security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, plugins, and themes up-to-date.

WordPress Is Secure – Just Ask Any Bank Using It!

The amount of misinformation about WordPress security has even caused the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, 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, global corporations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their presence online, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting WordPress Website Security

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

• No platform is immune to hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The main 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 systems require frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting are only as secure as the least safe website on the grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then every site on the server is potentially vulnerable to being hacked also.

There’s No Reason Not To Use WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you continue to implement basic website security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) updated, there’s no reason to avoid choosing WordPress to run 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:  Preventing WordPress Brute Force Attacks

A vulnerable site provides hackers with a valuable platform for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets. Learn more about it here:

• A Review Of Blog Defender – WordPress Security Plugin

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version make sure you back up your WordPress website 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.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Backup, Copy And Keep Your WordPress Websites And Blogs Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

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 issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To learn more about using WordPress 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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