In April 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 vulnerable computers, also commonly known as “botnets”.

(WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system making it an obvious target for hackers)

On March 11, 2014, many technology sites began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress web sites had been hacked.

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

As reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When worldwide brute force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to start questioning if WordPress really is a secure application for building and running their websites.

Powering millions of websites worldwide makes WordPress an obvious target for malicious attacks by hackers. But should you really 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 choose WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and it’s only going to get worse.

You can safely 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 not a matter of if, but when before a malicious user will try to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Are “Open Source” Software Applications Secure?

Many people argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running websites and blogs because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can access the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download the code and study it, looking for security weaknesses that can be exploited …

(It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone will try 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-source software platform actually makes it a lot more secure in a number of ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a huge community comprised of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, the core application is built, maintained and updated by an open community of thousands of web developers. Source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress evolves through the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users dedicated to improving the code and making it safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a large community of WordPress users. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

The moment that a security vulnerability is discovered by developers or users, the WordPress core developers are then notified …

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

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anybody can help contribute to the process of addressing security issues.

For example:

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

This is the reason why WordPress is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs updated …

(WordPress continually releases new updates to address security weaknesses)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Applications

Compare what we have just discussed above with proprietary CMS technologies where often the responsibility for maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a smaller team of developers with limited resources and you will quickly understand the security benefits of using WordPress to power your websites and blogs on a secure platform.

WordPress is 100% free to download, modify and use, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the software. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you a completely 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 applications, there is valid research to support the fact that the WordPress CMS is safer than other Open Source CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla.

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

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

Other studies also indicate that, because WordPress is easy to use and update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites run on WordPress had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

(Blog Defender – CMS Tests. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame The Technology

Whenever WordPress sites get attacked en masse, you shouldn’t be too quick to blame WordPress.

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

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

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

Of immediate concern for WordPress users, is the fact that most security issues seem to be related to website owners forgetting to upgrade their CMS software to a newer version …

(Many WordPress sites are running on outdated versions. Screenshot image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only between 25% – 30% 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 third-party developers …

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

Like all robust web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly to address new security problems that can arise. Improving software 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 WordPress security has even led the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime into the debate.

In a blog post 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, including banks, leading brands and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their presence online, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect WP Site Security

Other issues that can affect WordPress blog security include things like:

• No platform is safe from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The biggest threat in all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security systems need to be constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting accounts are only as secure as the least safe website on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on that server is potentially vulnerable to being hacked also.

There Is No Reason To Avoid Using 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 commit to implementing basic web security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) up-to-date, there’s no reason not to use WordPress to power your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  Protect Your WordPress Website From Brute-Force Attacks

A compromised blog presents malicious users with a valuable platform to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and use your website to steal information from others. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress Web Sites makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and bots. Go here to learn more:

• Protect Your WP Blogs From Hackers With Blog Defender

If you are currently using an older WordPress version make sure you back up your site files and data before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore your site to its former configuration.

If you don’t want to back up your data manually, there are a number of plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Backup, Copy & Keep Your WordPress Websites And Blogs Protected With Backup Creator WP Plugin

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 the security benefits of using WordPress for a business website please see other posts published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

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