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

These attacks were caused by infected computer networks programmed to attack other sites, also commonly known as “botnets”.

(WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS making it a frequent target for hacking attacks)

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

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)

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 attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When worldwide brute force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to question if WordPress really is a safe platform for running websites.

WordPress often is targeted by hackers. But do you need to be concerned about WordPress as a secure web platform?

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 probably 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 when before someone attempts to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Are “Open Source” Applications Safe?

Some people argue that WordPress cannot be a secure platform for building and running websites because its open source code means that anyone can view how the software was built.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can view the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download the code and study all of it in detail, looking for security weaknesses 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 looking for security vulnerabilities or weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open software platform actually makes it more secure in several ways.

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

(The WordPress core application is built, maintained and updated by an open community of thousands of web developers. Image: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of hundreds of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from hundreds of individuals dedicated to improving the software and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

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

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

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is very responsive and anyone can contribute to the process of getting bugs fixed.

For example:

• If you come across bugs and security vulnerabilities, you can report these by emailing 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 core development team releases new updates regularly, and why you need to keep your site frequently up-to-date …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to plug security issues)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Applications

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 improve code security. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” CMS platforms are typically built by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, support, bug fixes and updates.

The WordPress CMS 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 you software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as you 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 the WordPress CMS is safer than other Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities found in popular open source CMS platforms …

(WordPress experiences fewer security vulnerabilities than other leading CMS platforms. Screenshot image: National Vulnerability Database)

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is easy to use and to update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites built with WordPress had less exposure to risk …

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

Don’t Blame The WordPress CMS

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

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

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their sites had been compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

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

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. Source: Sucuri.net)

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

(WP Security Issues. Image source: WebDesign.org)

Like many web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security vulnerabilities that could arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress software, themes, plugins, etc..

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Are Using It!

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

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

Other Areas Affecting WP Blog Security

Other research on issues that affect WordPress security point to factors like:

• No platform is protected from hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The main risk in all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security processes need regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting are only as safe as the least safe site on the hosting grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on the shared server is potentially vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Choose 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 web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) updated, there is no reason to avoid using WordPress.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

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

A vulnerable site offers malicious users with a valuable resource for distributed attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and bots. Learn more about it here:

• Secure Your WordPress Web Sites From Hackers With Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are currently using an older version of WordPress remember to make a backup before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore things back to their former settings.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Copy & Protect Your WordPress Websites With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

References Used In This Article

For more information on the above, refer to the sites below:

• ITProPortal.com
• National Vulnerability Database
• BlogDefender.com
• UpAndUpStudios.com
• StopBadware.org
• Sucuri.net
• WebDesign.org
• Quora.com
• Ma.tt

Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better business results online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business website or blog please see other posts we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

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