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

These attacks were caused by computers infected with malware and programmed to attack other installations (called “botnets”).

(Powering millions of sites around the world makes WordPress an obvious target for hacking attacks)

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

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

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

When worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to start asking if WordPress really is a secure platform for building and running an online presence.

WordPress is the world’s most used content management system making it a target for hacking. But should you really be concerned about WordPress as a secure platform for building your business web presence?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should definitely choose WordPress if you are 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 sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and this is getting worse.

It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’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 your website has been built with!

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 “Open Source” Software Really Safe?

Many people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running websites because its open source code means that anyone can view how the software was built.

Open source CMS software like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to use and anyone can have access to the entire 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 great detail, looking for weaknesses and vulnerabilities that they could exploit …

(It’s not a matter of if, but when before a malicious user tries 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 program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open application actually makes it a lot more secure in many ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a global volunteer community of hundreds of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a community of volunteers around the world is responsible for keeping the software code maintained and updated. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves through the effort of hundreds of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from hundreds of individuals committed to improving the application, identifying and fixing security holes and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by an open community of WordPress users. Image source: WordPress.org)

As soon as security problems are discovered by developers or users, the WordPress developers are then notified …

(WordPress is continually being improved by an open community of users and developers. Screenshot: make.wordpress.org)

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is solid and formidable and anybody can contribute to the improvement of the platform.

For example:

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

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

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

Contrast what we have just discussed above with proprietary platforms where often the responsibility for improving software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a smaller team of developers with limited resources and you will very quickly understand the value and advantages of using WordPress to run your web presence on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the platform. Can a proprietary technology 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 Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, research shows that WordPress is safer than other Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities discovered in popular platforms during a given period …

(WordPress has fewer security vulnerabilities than other CMS applications. Image source: National Vulnerability Database)

Other research shows that, because WordPress is easy to use and to maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, WordPress sites had fewer exposure to risk …

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

WordPress Is Not Always To Blame

If someone hacks into your WordPress site, don’t be 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 compromised web security.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their sites were compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern, however, 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 looked at in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are actually found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

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

Like all robust software applications, WordPress is updated regularly to address new security issues that may arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, plugins, and themes up-to-date.

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Use It!

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 blog post entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” published on April 15, 2015, Matt wrote the following about WordPress …

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 choose WordPress to build their websites, including banks, leading brands, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues That Can Affect Site Security

Other factors 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 attack, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The biggest security threat of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security systems need to be constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Hosting server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting accounts are only as safe as the least secure site on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then all sites on that server are potentially vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Why You Should Not Choose 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.) regularly up-to-date, there’s no reason to avoid choosing WordPress.

WordPress Security – Tips

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

A compromised blog provides malicious users with a valuable platform to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and use your site to defraud online users. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Prevent Hackers And Bots From Attacking Your Web Site

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

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

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, the above information has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website please see other posts we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

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