In 2013 a worldwide brute-force attack hit WordPress installations across virtually every WP hosting server in existence.

These attacks were caused by botnets (computers infected with viruses and programmed to attack other installations with security vulnerabilities).

(WordPress is often the target of malicious attacks by hackers, due to its popularity)

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

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Screenshot 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 flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When worldwide brute force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to question if WordPress really is a safe application for building and running websites.

WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers. But should you really 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 choose WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at facts …

Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked 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 safe to 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 someone tries to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”Isn’t Open Source Software Extremely Vulnerable?”

Many people argue that WordPress should not be used for running a web presence because having open source code means that anyone can view how the software program runs.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can view the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily get hold of all of the code and go through every single line, looking for vulnerabilities that can be exploited …

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

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

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

(An open volunteer community of web developers around the world is responsible for building and maintaining the WordPress platform. Screenshot image: WordPress.org)

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

(WordPress is built by a large community of volunteer members. Image: WordPress.org)

The moment that a security problem is discovered by developers or users, the WordPress development team are then notified …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anyone can help contribute to the improvement of the platform.

For example:

• If you find bugs or a security exploit, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WP plugin, you can report these by notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

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

(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to plug security holes)

WordPress Vs Proprietary Applications

Contrast what we have just discussed above with proprietary CMS technologies where often a much smaller team with limited time and resources is responsible for monitoring and maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will quickly realize the value of using WordPress to power your business web presence on a secure platform.

WordPress is free to download, modify and use, and hundreds 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 CMS 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 the WordPress CMS is safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows the number of security vulnerabilities found in each of these platforms during a given period …

(National Vulnerability Database – Security Vulnerabilities IN CMS Applications. Screenshot image: National Vulnerability Database)

Other studies also show that, because WordPress is easy to use and to update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

(WordPress is safer to use than other CMS platforms. Image source: BlogDefender.com)

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

If someone breaks into your WordPress site, don’t be 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 webmasters have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with web security compromises.

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

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

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

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. Screenshot 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 3rd-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 all robust software applications, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security threats 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, plugins, themes, etc..

WordPress … Good Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security has even caused the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime into the online debate.

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 presence online, not just bloggers.

Other Factors Affecting WordPress Website Security

Other issues that can affect WordPress security include:

• No platform is immune to security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to outdated software.
• The biggest security weakness in all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security processes need to be constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting accounts are only as safe as the least secure site on the hosting grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on your server are potentially vulnerable to being hacked as well.

There Is No Reason To Avoid Using WordPress

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

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

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

An unsecured blog provides malicious users with a valuable platform for launching denial of service attacks, spreading 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:

• Prevent Hackers & Bots From Finding Your Web Sites

If you are using older WordPress versions remember to make a backup before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to back up your site manually, there are a number of plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate & Keep Your WordPress Sites Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

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, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about using the WordPress web content publishing platform please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

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