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

These attacks were caused by infected computer networks programmed to attack other sites, also commonly known as “botnets”.

(WordPress powers millions of websites worldwide, making it an obvious target for hacking)

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

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Screenshot source: BlogDefender website)

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

Whenever attacks on WordPress sites happen on such a wide scale, it’s natural for people to ask just how secure WordPress is as an application for running a business web presence.

Powering millions of sites around the world makes WordPress an obvious target for hacking. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure platform for building your business presence online?

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 by looking at 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.

It’s safe to 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 you use!

Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but when before your website is targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Are “Open Source” Applications Secure?

Some people often argue that WordPress should not be used for running websites because it is “open source” and freely available program.

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download the code and go through it, searching for weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the code that can be exploited …

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

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

This is because WordPress is supported by a volunteer community comprised of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a community of web developers is responsible for keeping the platform code updated. Source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from hundreds of web developers, designers and users dedicated to improving the software and making it safer for every user …

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

As soon as a security vulnerability is identified by developers or users, these are immediately logged in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

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

The WordPress community support system is solid and formidable and anyone can contribute to the process of getting bugs fixed.

For example:

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

This is the reason why WordPress is constantly releasing new version updates, and why you continually need to keep your site regularly up-to-date …

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

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Platforms

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

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, use and modify, and thousands 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 you a completely free application that you can download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management applications, there is valid research showing 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 CMS platforms …

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

Other studies 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 issues, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

(BlogDefender.com – CMS Tests. Source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame The Technology

If someone hacks into your WordPress site, don’t be too quick to blame WordPress.

According to a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises called StopBadware and security vendor Commtouch in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, many website owners have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or deal with compromised web security.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t know how their sites had been hacked after an attack …

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

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

(Many WordPress sites are running on outdated versions. Image 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 actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while 65% – 75% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

(WordPress Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like many software platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to address new security problems that can 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 … Secure Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is has even caused Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime into the online discussion.

In an article entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” published 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, large organizations and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers.

Other Factors That Can Affect Security

Other areas that can affect blog security include:

• No platform is safe from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The main security risk in all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security processes need to be constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting servers are only as safe as the least secure website on the grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site broken into, then every site on the server can potentially become vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Not To Choose WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you commit to implementing basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) updated, there’s really no reason to avoid using WordPress to run your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks see this article:  Ten Security Measures That Can Help To Prevent Brute-Force Attacks On Your WordPress Site

An unsecured site provides hackers with a resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress makes your WordPress site invisible to botnet and hacker attacks. Go here to learn more:

• Make Your Web Sites Hidden To Hackers & Botnets With Blog Defender Security Plugin

If you are currently using an older WordPress version remember to back up your website before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore your site to its previous state.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Back Up, Clone & Keep Your WP Site Protected With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

Article References

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 information has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit other posts published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.

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