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

These attacks were caused by infected computer networks programmed to attack other vulnerable sites (botnets).

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

On March 11, 2014, technology sites began reporting that over 162,000 WordPress-powered 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)

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 brute-force attacks on WordPress sites happen, it’s natural for people to ask just how secure WordPress is as an application for running an online presence.

WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers. 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 consider using WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with some facts …

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

The sheer number 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 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 you use!

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

How Vulnerable Are “Open Source” Programs?

Some people will often argue that WordPress cannot be a safe platform for running web sites because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can examine the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily get hold of all of the code and go through it in great detail, searching for weaknesses and vulnerabilities that can be exploited …

(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 searching for holes or weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source application actually makes it a whole lot more secure in many ways.

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

(With WordPress, an open community of web developers worldwide is responsible for keeping the software code updated. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves through the effort of thousands of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from thousands of individuals who are dedicated to improving the application, identifying and fixing security issues and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by an open community of volunteer members. Source: make.wordpress.org)

The moment that any security hole is identified by developers or users, these are then recorded in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by thousands of committed individuals community of users and web developers. Image source: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is solid and formidable and anyone can contribute to the process of addressing vulnerabilities.

For example:

• If you notice bugs and a security hole, you can report these by sending an email to security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WordPress plugin, you can report these by notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is one of the reasons why WordPress releases new updates regularly, and why you need to keep your sites and blogs regularly up-to-date …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to address security issues)

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

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

The WordPress CMS is free to download, modify and use, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the technology. 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 CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms include 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 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 given period …

(WordPress experiences fewer security vulnerabilities than other leading CMS applications. Screenshot: National Vulnerability Database)

Other studies also indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and keep updated, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites run on WordPress had less exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are less exposed to exploits than other CMS platform users. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Should Not Be Blamed

If someone hacks into your WordPress site, don’t be too quick to blame the WordPress CMS platform.

According to security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, most webmasters have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with compromises.

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

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

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

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. Image source: 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 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

(WordPress Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like many software platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to address new security risks that can arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, plugins, and themes up-to-date.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

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

In an article 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, including banks, leading brands and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their presence online, not just bloggers.

Other Issues That Can Affect Blog Security

Other areas that can affect WordPress security include factors 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 outdated software.
• The main security risk of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes need constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Hosting setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting accounts are only as safe as the least secure website on the hosting grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on your server can potentially become vulnerable to being hacked as well.

There’s No Reason Why You Should Not Choose WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most of the leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you commit to implementing basic website security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their chosen web platform) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there’s really no reason not to use WordPress.

WordPress Security – Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  10 Security Measures That Can Prevent Brute-Force Attacks On WordPress

An unsecured web site provides malicious users with a platform for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Blog Defender Security Plugin

If you are currently using an older WordPress version remember to make a complete 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.

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

References Used In This Article

For more information on the above, see the following sources:

• 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 website and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business website please click on links to visit other posts published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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