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

These attacks were caused by computer networks infected with viruses and programmed to attack other vulnerable computers, also commonly known as “botnets”.

(WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers)

In March 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that over 160,000+ legitimate WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Source: Blog Defender)

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)

According to 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.

Whenever worldwide brute force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to start asking just how safe and secure the WordPress platform is for running websites.

Powering millions of websites and blogs worldwide makes WordPress a target for malicious attempts by hackers. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure platform for building your business website?

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 with some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s only going to get worse.

You can safely 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 not a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website will be targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Are “Open Source” Applications Really Safe?

Some people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for running websites or blogs because having open source code means that anyone can view how the program runs.

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can view the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily get hold of the code and go through it, looking for security weaknesses that can be exploited …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but when before a malicious user will try 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 weaknesses or vulnerabilities they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open application actually makes it a whole lot more secure in many ways.

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

(A huge community is responsible for building, maintaining and updating the WordPress core application. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

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

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

The moment that any security issue is identified by developers or users, the WordPress developers are then notified …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by an open community of users and web developers. Image source: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system is solid and formidable and anybody can contribute to securing the platform.

For example:

• If you notice bugs and security weaknesses, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a WordPress plugin, you can also report these by emailing plugins@wordpress.org.

This is one of the reasons why the WordPress community is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you need to keep your sites and blogs frequently up-to-date …

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

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an open source platform like WordPress is that users benefit from a large community of developers who continually contribute to improve code security. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS application is normally developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, software maintenance, bug fixes and software fixes.

WordPress is 100% free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the technology. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users a free platform that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in each of these platforms during a certain period …

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

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

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

It’s Easier To Blame Technology When Things Go Wrong

When WordPress sites are attacked, 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 vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises, many webmasters 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, 63% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their sites were compromised after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security problems seem to be related to site owners running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. Screenshot source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only between 25% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while 70% – 75% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

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

Like many modern web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order 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 software, themes, and plugins up-to-date.

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 post 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 use WordPress to build their web presence, including banks, global corporations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues Affecting Security

Other areas that can affect security include issues such as:

• No platform is completely protected from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using software that is out of date.
• The main risk of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes need regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting accounts are only as safe as the least secure website on the grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on that server become vulnerable to being hacked also.

There Is No Reason To Avoid Using WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most other leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you continue to implement basic web security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their chosen web platform) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly updated, there is really no reason not to choose WordPress.

WordPress Security – Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks see this article:  Protect Your WordPress Site Or Blog From Brute Force Attacks

A vulnerable web site presents malicious users with a valuable platform to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress Web Sites makes your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers. Learn more about this plugin here:

• How To Make Your Web Site Hidden To Hackers With Blog Defender

If you are currently using an older version of WordPress remember to back up your files before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore everything to its former state.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Duplicate & Keep Your WP Site Protected With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

Article References

The above facts 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 web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about using WordPress please see other articles we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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