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

These attacks were caused by computers infected with malware and programmed to attack other vulnerable installations (called “botnets”).

(Being the world’s most used content management system makes WordPress a target for hackers)

In March 2014, many technology sites began reporting that 160,000+ legitimate WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Image: BlogDefender site)

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 WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When global brute-force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to question if WordPress really is a safe application for running their sites.

Powering millions of websites around the world makes WordPress a target for malicious attacks by hackers. But do you really 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 use 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 scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and it’s getting 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 … regardless of the web platform your website has been built with!

Since it’s no longer 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?

How Secure Is “Open Source” Software?

Some people will often try to argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running websites or blogs because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

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

(It’s no longer 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 a free program and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for holes and weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in many ways.

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

(With WordPress, an open volunteer community of web developers is responsible for keeping the platform up-to-date. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of hundreds of committed individuals working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from thousands of minds committed to improving the software and making it safer for every user …

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

The moment that any security vulnerability is identified by developers or users, these are then noted in user forums and addressed by the WordPress development team …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is very responsive and anybody can contribute to fixing the platform.

For example:

• If you discover bugs and security exploits, you can report these by sending an email to security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a plugin, you can report these by notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is one of the reasons why the WordPress community releases new updates so often, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs up-to-date …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary Platforms

Compare what we have just discussed above with proprietary CMS technologies where often a smaller team with limited time and resources is responsible for monitoring and improving software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will very quickly realize the value and advantages of using WordPress to power your websites and blogs on a secure platform.

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 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 CMS Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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 discovered in popular platforms during a given period …

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

Other studies also indicate that, because WordPress is easy to use and to keep up-to-date, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

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

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

If someone compromises the security of your WordPress site, don’t be quick to place the blame on the WordPress CMS platform.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” which is published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, most website owners have no idea about the security 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 websites were compromised after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern is the fact that many security issues seem to be related to users running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many WordPress sites are running on outdated versions. Screenshot source: 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 CMS core, while 65% – 80% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

(WP Security Issues. Source: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust software platforms, WordPress is regularly updated in order to deal with new security threats that may 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 Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

The amount of misinformation about WordPress security has even caused the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime in and reply to posts online.

In a blog post entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” posted 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 presence online, including banks, large organizations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting Security

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

• No platform is safe from hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main threat of all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security systems need regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting are only as secure as the least secure 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 becomes vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Use 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 plugins, themes, etc.) up-to-date, there is no reason to avoid using WordPress.

WordPress Security – Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  WordPress Brute Force Attack Prevention Measures

A compromised blog offers hackers with a valuable resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• A Review Of Blog Defender – WordPress Security Plugin

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version make sure you back up your site before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of free and paid plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Copy & Keep Your WordPress Web Site Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

Article 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, this article has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles or tutorials are published.

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