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

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

(WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers)

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

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Source: 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 WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When attacks on WordPress sites are reported in the media, it’s natural for website owners to start asking if WordPress really is a secure platform for building and running websites.

WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers, due to its global popularity. 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 by looking at some facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and the situation is only going to get worse.

You can safely assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone attempts to hack into your site … regardless of the web platform your website has been built with!

Since it’s no longer 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?

How Secure Is “Open Source” Software?

Some people often argue that WordPress should not be used for running a website or blog 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 software code.

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

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but when before someone tries 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 vulnerabilities and weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source software platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in a number of ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a global community of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a huge community of hundreds of web developers around the world is responsible for keeping the platform up-to-date. Image source: WordPress.org)

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

(WordPress is built and maintained by a global community of WordPress users. Source: WordPress.org)

The moment that a security hole is identified by developers or users, the WordPress core developers are then made aware of it …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anyone can contribute to securing the platform.

For example:

• If you come across bugs and a security exploit, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a plugin, you can also report these by sending an email to plugins@wordpress.org.

This is why the WordPress team releases new version updates regularly, and why you need to keep your site frequently up-to-date …

(WordPress continually releases new version updates to address security holes)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Applications

Contrast what we have just discussed above with proprietary CMS platforms where often a small team with limited time and resources is responsible for monitoring and improving software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will quickly realize the security benefits of using WordPress to power your site on a secure platform.

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

WordPress Vs Other Open Source Applications

(CMS Platforms)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, research shows that WordPress is safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in popular open source platforms during a certain period …

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

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and maintain, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites run on WordPress had less exposure to risk …

(WordPress has less exposure to risk than other CMS platforms. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame The Technology

If someone compromises the security of your WordPress site, don’t be too 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, many website owners are not fully aware of 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 know how their websites were hacked after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern for WordPress users, is the fact that most security-related problems come from site owners simply not updating their CMS software to the latest version …

(Many WordPress users have not updated their WP software. 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 third-party code are actually found in the WordPress core software, while 70% – 85% 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 in order to deal with new security problems that may arise. Improving security is an ongoing 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 Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime into the discussion.

In an article entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” published 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 choose WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting Security

Other areas that can affect blog security include issues such as:

• No platform is completely immune to hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The biggest risk of all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting are only as secure as the least secure website on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on the shared server is potentially vulnerable to hacking as well.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Choosing WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you commit to implementing basic website security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there’s really no reason to avoid choosing WordPress for your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

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

A compromised blog provides malicious users with a resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and use your site to defraud others. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers. Learn more about this plugin here:

• How To Prevent Hackers & Bots From Attacking Your Website With Blog Defender

If you are using older versions of WordPress remember to back up everything 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 many WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Duplicate & Keep Your WordPress Web Sites Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

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

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