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

These attacks were caused by infected computer networks programmed to attack other installations (called “botnets”).

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

On March 11, 2014, many leading technology sites began reporting that over 162,000 legitimate WordPress websites had been hacked.

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

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

Whenever global attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to question just how secure the WordPress platform is for running an online presence.

WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attempts by hackers, due to its popularity. But should you be concerned about WordPress as being a secure web platform?

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 by looking at some 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 things are getting worse.

You can safely 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 not a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone will try to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”Isn’t Open Source Software Highly Vulnerable?”

Many people will often try to argue that WordPress should not be used for running web sites because it is a freely available open source software program.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download the code and go through it in detail, looking for holes and weaknesses in the code that could 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 a free application and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for security vulnerabilities and weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open software platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in a number of ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by a global volunteer community comprised of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a global volunteer community of developers is responsible for keeping the core application maintained and updated. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves through the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from hundreds of web developers, designers and users dedicated to improving the software, fixing bugs and making it safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a large community of volunteer web developers. Image: WordPress.org)

The moment any security problems are identified by developers or users, the WordPress core developers are then notified …

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

The WordPress community support system is very responsive and anyone can help contribute to the process of getting bugs fixed.

For example:

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

This is one of the reasons why the WordPress team is constantly releasing new updates, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress site regularly up-to-date …

(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to address any security exploits found)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an ”open” platform like WordPress is that users benefit from a large community of developers who continually contribute to make the code more secure. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” software application would normally be built by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, maintenance services, bug fixes and updates.

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve 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 Applications

(CMS Platforms)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, there is valid research showing that WordPress is 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 …

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

Other studies also show that, because WordPress is easy to use and to maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, WordPress sites had less exposure to risk …

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

Don’t Blame The WordPress CMS

Whenever WordPress sites are attacked, users shouldn’t be too quick to blame the WordPress CMS platform.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by security vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises, many website owners are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with web security compromises.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their sites were hacked after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern for WordPress users, is the fact that most security-related problems come from users running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. 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 actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

(WP Security Issues. Screenshot: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust web applications, WordPress is updated regularly in order to address new security problems that could arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, plugins, and themes updated to the latest version.

WordPress Is Secure – Just Ask Any Bank Using It!

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

In an article 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 around the world, including banks, large organizations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their presence online, not just bloggers.

Other Issues Affecting Security

Other factors that can affect site security include things such as:

• No platform is completely immune to hacking. 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 biggest vulnerability of all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security systems require frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting servers are only as safe as the least secure site on the hosting grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on the server are potentially vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Not To Choose WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is as secure as most other leading web platforms being used by businesses of all sizes to build their presence online. As long as you continue to implement basic website security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) updated, there’s no reason to avoid choosing WordPress.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks see this article:  Protecting Your WordPress Site Or Blog From Brute Force Attacks

An unsecured web site offers hackers with a valuable resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers. Go here to learn more:

• How To Prevent Hackers From Finding And Attacking Your Blogs With Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are using older WordPress versions make sure you back up everything before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore things back to their former state.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Backup, Clone And Protect Your WordPress Web Site With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

References

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, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about using the WP CMS software please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles or tutorials are published.

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