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

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

(WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attempts by hackers, due to its global popularity)

In March 2014, many leading technology sites began reporting that over 160,000+ WordPress websites had been hacked.

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

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

Powering millions of sites around the world makes WordPress an obvious target for attempted hacker attacks. But should you be concerned about WordPress as being a secure web platform?

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 by looking at facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and this is only going to get worse.

It’s 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 your website has been built with!

Since it’s not a matter of if, but when before your website is targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

How Secure Is “Open Source” Software?

Some people argue that WordPress cannot be a safe platform for running websites because it’s an “open source” and freely available software.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can view the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download all of the code and go through all of it in detail, searching for holes and weaknesses in the code that could be exploited …

(It’s not 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 program and hackers can easily access it and study the code looking for vulnerabilities and weaknesses they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source software platform actually makes it more secure in many ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a large volunteer community comprised of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a huge community of thousands of developers worldwide is responsible for keeping the software code up-to-date. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of hundreds of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from hundreds of minds dedicated to improving the code, fixing bugs and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a global community of experienced web developers. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

The moment any security weaknesses are identified by developers or users, the WordPress development team are then made aware of it …

(WordPress is continually being improved by a global community community of web developers and users. Source: 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 notice bugs and a security issue, you can report these by emailing security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WP plugin, you can also report these by emailing plugins@wordpress.org.

This is the reason why WordPress releases new updates on a regular basis, and why you need to keep your site frequently up-to-date …

(WordPress continually releases new updates to address security exploits)

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS 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” software applications are typically built by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, software maintenance, bug fixes and software fixes.

The WordPress CMS is free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the platform. 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 Applications

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, the chart below shows the number of security vulnerabilities found in each of these open source CMS platforms …

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

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is easy to use and to keep updated, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites built with WordPress had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are less exposed to security exploits than other CMS platform users. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Is Not To Blame

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

According to security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, most website owners are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to 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 hacked after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that most security-related problems come from website owners running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many security issues come from sites running outdated WordPress versions. Image: Sucuri.net)

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

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

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

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

The amount of misinformation about WordPress security 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 Issues Affecting Site Security

Other issues that can affect site security include things 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 weakness in all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting accounts are only as safe as the least safe website on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then every site on that shared server can potentially become vulnerable.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Using WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is as secure as most of the leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you commit to implementing basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there is no reason to avoid using WordPress to drive your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – 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 vulnerable blog presents malicious users with a valuable resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and use your site to steal information from others. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and bots. Learn more about it here:

• Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are using older versions of WordPress remember to make a complete backup before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore your web site or blog to its former state.

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 fully automate your site backups here: Back Up, Copy And Keep Your WordPress Sites Protected With Backup Creator WP Plugin

References Used In This Article

The above statistics were sourced from the following sites:

• 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 get better business results online. To learn more about using WordPress please click on links to visit other posts we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles or tutorials are published.

***