In April 2013 a global brute-force attack began hitting WordPress installations on almost every WP host server in existence.

These attacks were caused by networks of infected computers programmed to attack other installations (called “botnets”).

(Powering millions of websites around the world makes WordPress an obvious target for attempted attacks by hackers)

On March 11, 2014, many technology sites began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.

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

Whenever attacks on WordPress sites take place on a worldwide scale, it’s natural for website owners to start asking just how secure the WordPress platform is for building and running websites.

WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attempts by hackers, due to its popularity. But should you really be concerned about WordPress as a secure platform for building your business web presence?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and the situation is only going to get worse.

You can safely 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 a matter of when before a malicious user will attempt 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 argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running websites because it is a freely available open source software program.

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

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

(It’s not a matter of if, but when before someone will attempt to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

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

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

(A huge community is responsible for building and updating WordPress. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves because of the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from thousands of individuals who, at any one time, are focused on improving the application, identifying and fixing security holes and making WordPress safer for every user …

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

The moment any security vulnerabilities are identified by developers or users, the WordPress core developers are then made aware of it …

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

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

For example:

• If you notice bugs or a security vulnerability, you can report these by sending an email to 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 why the core development team is constantly releasing new version updates, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress site up-to-date …

(WordPress continually releases new version updates to plug any security issues found)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Applications

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

WordPress is 100% free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the software. 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 Open Source CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla.

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were found in each of these platforms during a given period …

(National Vulnerability Database – Security Vulnerabilities IN CMS Applications. Source: National Vulnerability Database)

Other studies show that, because WordPress is easy to use and keep updated, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, WordPress sites had less exposure to risk …

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

WordPress Should Not Be Blamed

If someone compromises the security of your WordPress site, don’t be too quick to blame 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 webmasters have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with web security compromises.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their websites were hacked after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern is the fact that many security issues seem to be related to website owners not upgrading their WordPress software to a newer version …

(Many WordPress users have not upgraded their WP sites. Image source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only between 25% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

(WP Security Issues. Source: WebDesign.org)

Like many software applications, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security threats that can arise. Improving software security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, plugins, and themes updated to the latest version.

WordPress Is Secure – Just Ask Any Bank That Uses It!

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 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 around the world, including banks, leading brands and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors Affecting Site Security

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

• No platform is protected from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to using software that is out of date.
• The main risk of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security processes require constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting servers are only as safe as the least safe site on the hosting grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on the server become vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Not To Use WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you remember to implement basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) up-to-date, there is 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

An unsecured website presents hackers with a valuable resource for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress Websites makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and bots. Go here to learn more:

• Prevent Hackers From Finding & Attacking Your Websites With Blog Defender Security Plugin

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version make sure to back up your WordPress website before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to back up your site manually, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate And Keep Your WP Sites Protected With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

References

The above statistics 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 information 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 the security benefits of using WordPress please see other posts we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.

***