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

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

(WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attempts by hackers)

In March 2014, many leading technology sites began reporting that over 160,000+ WordPress-powered websites 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)

As reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web 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 start questioning if WordPress really is a safe application for building and running their websites.

WordPress powers millions of websites around the world, making it a frequent target for hacking attacks. But do you need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure web platform?

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 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 increasing on a daily basis, and this is only going to get worse.

It’s probably safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’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 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?

How Secure Are “Open Source” Software Applications?

Some people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for running web sites because having open source code means that anyone can view how the software application runs.

Open-source CMS platforms 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 study the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download all of the code and study every line in detail, looking for vulnerabilities that can be exploited …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website is targeted by hackers … WordPress or no WordPress!)

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

The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by an open volunteer community of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, an open community of thousands of developers is responsible for keeping the platform code up-to-date. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress evolves because of the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of minds dedicated to improving the software, fixing bugs and making WordPress safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by a global community of users. Image source: WordPress.org)

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

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

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anybody can contribute to securing the software.

For example:

• If you come across bugs and a security hole, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a WP plugin, you can report these by notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is the reason why the WordPress community is constantly releasing new version updates, and why you need to keep your WordPress site updated …

(WordPress continually releases new version updates to plug security weaknesses)

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

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 make the platform more secure. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS platform is typically 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 free to download, modify and use, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the platform. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you a free application that you can download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress CMS 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 WordPress is safer than other Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

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

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

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

(WordPress users are not as exposed to vulnerabilities as other CMS platform users. Source: BlogDefender.com)

It’s Easier To Blame Technology When Things Go Wrong

When WordPress sites are attacked en masse, you shouldn’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, most webmasters have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or deal with security compromises.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed in this 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 more immediate concern is the fact that most security-related issues result from site owners not upgrading their WordPress software to the latest version …

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

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

(WP Security Issues. Image source: WebDesign.org)

Like many software platforms, WordPress is regularly updated in order to deal with new security risks that may arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress software, themes, plugins, etc..

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

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

Other Areas That Can Affect Website Security

Other areas that can affect website security include issues like:

• 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 software that is out of date.
• The main vulnerability of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security systems need to be frequently monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Hosting server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting are only as secure as the least secure site on the grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on your server are potentially vulnerable.

There’s No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Use WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you remember to implement basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) updated, there is no reason not to choose WordPress to run your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

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

An unsecured blog offers malicious users with a valuable platform to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Hide Your WordPress Blog From Hackers With Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are currently using an older version of WordPress make sure to back up your WordPress site fully 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 back up your data manually, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate And Keep Your WP Website 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, this article 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 the WordPress CMS platform please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

***