In 2013 a global brute force attack began hitting WordPress installations across virtually every WP hosting server in existence.

These attacks were caused by botnets (computer networks infected with viruses and programmed to attack other vulnerable installations).

(Being the world’s most popular CMS makes WordPress an obvious target for hacking)

On March 11, 2014, many technology sites reported that over 160,000+ WordPress web sites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)

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 leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When global attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to ask just how secure the WordPress platform is for building and running a business web presence.

WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers, due to its global popularity. But should you really be concerned about WordPress as a secure platform for building your business website?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should choose WordPress if you are at all 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 increasing on a daily basis, and it’s only going to get worse.

It’s probably safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time … regardless of the web platform you use!

Since it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website is targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Is “Open Source” Software Secure?

Many people argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for building and running a website or blog because it’s an “open source” and freely available software.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If everyone can study the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download the code and study every single line in great detail, looking for vulnerabilities in the code that they could exploit …

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

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

This is because WordPress is supported by a huge community of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a large community of thousands of developers is responsible for keeping the software platform maintained and updated. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of a huge community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from hundreds of individuals committed to improving the software and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(WordPress is built by an open community of volunteer web developers. Screenshot image: WordPress.org)

As soon as security issues are identified by developers or users, these are reported in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

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

The WordPress community support system is solid and formidable and anybody can contribute to the process of addressing security issues.

For example:

• If you find bugs and a security weakness, you can report these by emailing security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WordPress plugin, you can report these by emailing plugins@wordpress.org.

This is the reason why WordPress is constantly releasing new updates, and why you need to keep your sites and blogs updated and maintained …

(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to plug any security vulnerabilities found)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

Compare the benefits of using an open source CMS technology like WordPress with proprietary platforms where often a small team with limited time and resources is responsible for developing, monitoring and improving software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will very quickly realize the value and advantages of using WordPress to power your business web presence on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, and hundreds 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 users a free application that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source Applications

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, research shows that the WordPress CMS is actually 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 certain period …

(WordPress experiences less security vulnerabilities than other CMS applications. Image: National Vulnerability Database)

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

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

WordPress Should Not Be Blamed

Whenever WordPress sites are attacked, users shouldn’t be quick to place the blame on WordPress.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises called StopBadware and security vendor Commtouch, a large number of 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 in this report didn’t even know how their websites had been hacked after an attack …

(Many webmasters don’t know how their sites get hacked. Image source: StopBadware.org)

Of more immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security-related issues come from site owners not upgrading their WordPress software to the latest version …

(Many WordPress users have not updated their sites. Screenshot: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only around between 20% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while 65% – 85% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

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

Like many web platforms, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security vulnerabilities that can arise. Improving security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins up-to-date.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security has even led Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, 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 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, global corporations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting Security

Other issues that can affect security include:

• No platform is completely safe 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 biggest vulnerability of all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security systems need to be frequently monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting are only as safe as the least safe site on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then every site on your shared server becomes vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Not To Use WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you continue to implement basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) up-to-date, there is really no reason why you should not use WordPress.

WordPress Security – Tips

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

An unsecured website presents hackers with a valuable resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to bot and hacker attacks. Go here to learn more:

• Prevent Hackers And Bots From Finding Your Blog With Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are using outdated versions of WordPress make sure you back up everything 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 site manually, there are a number of free and paid WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Clone & Protect Your WordPress Websites With Backup Creator WP Plugin

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 issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using the WordPress platform please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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