In early 2013 a worldwide brute-force attack began hitting WordPress installations on virtually every web host in existence around the world.

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

(WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attempts by hackers, due to its global popularity)

In March 2014, technology sites began reporting that over 162,000 WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.

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

Whenever attacks on WordPress sites are reported in the media, it’s natural for people to ask just how safe and secure WordPress is as an application for running their sites.

WordPress powers millions of sites worldwide, which makes it a frequent target for hacking attempts. But should you 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 definitely choose WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and the situation is getting 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 you use!

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

Is An “Open Source” Software Really Safe?

Many people will often try and argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running a business online because it’s a freely available open source software program.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain all of the code and go through every single line in detail, looking for holes and weaknesses that they could exploit …

(It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before a malicious user 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 looking for weaknesses and vulnerabilities that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open application actually makes it a whole lot more secure in several ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of a huge volunteer community that consists of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(A large volunteer community build and maintain. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves because of the effort of a huge volunteer community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from thousands of individuals dedicated to improving the application and making it safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by an open community of experienced web developers. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

As soon as security problems are discovered by developers or users, these are logged in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by a huge community community of web developers and users. Screenshot: make.wordpress.org)

The WordPress community support system is very responsive and anybody can contribute to fixing the software.

For example:

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

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

(WordPress continually releases new updates to plug security issues)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Platforms

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an ”open” technology 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 typically developed 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 free to download, use and modify, 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 software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, there is valid research to support the fact that WordPress is actually safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows the number of security vulnerabilities found in popular CMS platforms …

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

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is easy to use and to maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites built with WordPress had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

(BlogDefender.com – CMS Tests. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame WordPress

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

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

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

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

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

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated WordPress version. 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 found in the WordPress core software, while 65% – 85% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by 3rd-party developers …

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

Like all robust web platforms, WordPress is regularly updated in order to address new security problems that could arise. Improving security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins updated to the latest version.

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Use It!

The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security has even caused 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 use WordPress to build their web presence, including banks, leading brands, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect Security

Other studies on issues that play a role in WordPress security point to things like:

• No platform is immune to hackers. 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 main security threat in all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security systems require frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Webhosting setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as secure 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 the server can potentially become vulnerable to hacking also.

There’s No Reason Not To Use WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you continue to implement basic website security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) updated, there is really no reason not to use WordPress to drive your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Tips

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

An unsecured site offers malicious users with a platform to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• Prevent Hackers & Botnets From Attacking Your WP Web Sites

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version remember to back up everything 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.

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

Article References

The facts quoted above 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, the above article has given you 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 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 content is published.

***