In 2013 a worldwide brute-force attack struck WordPress installations across almost every WP host server in existence around the world.

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

(WordPress is the world’s most used CMS making it a target for hacking attempts)

On March 11, 2014, technology sites reported that over 160,000+ legitimate WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Screenshot: 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 well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever global attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to start questioning if WordPress really is a secure software for building and running websites.

WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attacks by hackers. But should you really be concerned about WordPress as being a secure web platform?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should definitely use WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s getting 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 a malicious user attempts to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

How Secure Is “Open Source” Software?

Many people will often try to argue that WordPress is not a secure platform for building and running websites because it’s an “open source” and freely available software.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily get hold of the code and study every single line in great detail, looking for security vulnerabilities in the code that they can exploit …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but when before a malicious user will attempt to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is free to download and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for holes or vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open application actually makes it more secure in many ways.

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

(The WordPress platform is built, maintained and updated by a global community of web developers. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves through the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from hundreds of individuals committed to improving the software, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making WordPress safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a global community of users. Image: WordPress.org)

The moment that a security hole is discovered by developers or users, these are normally reported in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core development team …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is solid and formidable and anyone can help contribute to the improvement of the platform.

For example:

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

This is the reason why the core development team is constantly releasing new updates, and why you continually need to keep your site frequently up-to-date …

(WordPress continually releases new version updates to plug security weaknesses)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Applications

Contrast the benefits of using an open source CMS platform like WordPress with proprietary CMS technologies where often a small team with limited time and resources is responsible for monitoring and maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will quickly understand the value of using WordPress to run your business web presence on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the software. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users a completely free CMS software that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, there is valid research showing that WordPress is safer than other leading 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 platforms during a given period …

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

Other studies also indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to keep up-to-date, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites run on WordPress had less exposure to risk …

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

WordPress Is Not At Fault

When WordPress sites get attacked en masse, users shouldn’t be too quick to place the blame on WordPress.

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

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their websites were compromised after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that many security issues seem to be related to users running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. 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 CMS core, while 65% – 80% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by third-party developers …

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

Like many software applications, WordPress is updated regularly to deal with new security issues that could arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins up-to-date.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is has even led Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime in and reply to posts online.

In a 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 around the world, including banks, global corporations and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers.

Other Issues Affecting WP Website Security

Other studies on issues that play a role in website security point to areas such as:

• No platform is safe from security threats. 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 biggest weakness in all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security processes need to be frequently monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Hosting setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as secure as the least safe site on the hosting grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on the server can potentially become vulnerable to hacking as well.

There Is No Reason Not To Choose WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you implement basic security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there’s no reason why you should not choose WordPress.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

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

An unsecured blog presents hackers with a resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and use your website to defraud innocent people. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to botnet and hacker attacks. Learn more about it here:

• Blog Defender – Make Your WordPress Web Sites Invisible To Hackers

If you are using outdated WordPress versions make sure to make a backup 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 everything to its previous state.

If you don’t want to back up your data manually, there are a number of free and paid plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate & Keep Your WP Site Protected With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

Article References

The statistics quoted above were referenced from various sources, including those listed below:

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

Hopefully, the above article has given you 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 or blog please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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