In early 2013 a worldwide brute-force attack struck WordPress installations on almost every WP host server in existence around the world.

These attacks were caused by botnets (computers infected with malware and programmed to attack other sites).

(WordPress powers millions of websites and blogs worldwide, making it a natural target for malicious attempts by hackers)

On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that over 162,000 WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.

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

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

When brute force attacks on WordPress sites take place on a worldwide scale, it’s natural for website owners to start asking just how secure the WordPress platform is for running an online presence.

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS which makes it a target for hacker attacks. But should you really be concerned about WordPress as a secure web platform?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should definitely use WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, 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 does attempt 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 malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Is “Open Source” Secure?

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

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain the code and go through every line, searching for security vulnerabilities that can be exploited …

(It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone 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 looking for security vulnerabilities and weaknesses they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open platform actually makes it a lot more secure in several ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of an open volunteer community of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, an open community of thousands of volunteers around the world is responsible for keeping the platform code updated. Image source: make.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 hundreds of web developers, designers and users committed to improving the software, fixing bugs and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by a global community of volunteer members. Source: WordPress.org)

The moment that any security vulnerability is identified by developers or users, these are logged in user forums and addressed by the WordPress development team …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by a huge community community of web developers and users. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anybody can contribute to the process of getting vulnerabilities plugged.

For example:

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

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

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

Contrast what we have just discussed above with proprietary CMS technologies where often the responsibility for maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a much smaller team of developers with limited resources and you will quickly understand the security benefits of using WordPress to power your web presence on a secure platform.

WordPress is free to download, use and modify, and thousands 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 a free CMS platform that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management applications, there is valid research showing that WordPress is actually safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla.

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in popular platforms during a given period …

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

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

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

WordPress Should Not Be Blamed

When WordPress sites are attacked en masse, you shouldn’t be quick to place the blame on WordPress.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, a large number of webmasters have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

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

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

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

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. Screenshot image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only around between 20% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by 3rd-party developers …

(WordPress Security Issues. Source: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security issues 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, themes, plugins, etc..

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Use It!

The amount of misinformation online about how secure WordPress is has even caused the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime in and reply to posts online.

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, large organizations and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues That Can Affect WordPress Website Security

Other issues that can affect WP website security include things such as:

• No platform is completely immune to hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The biggest security vulnerability in all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes need frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting accounts are only as safe as the least safe site on the grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then every site on your shared server can potentially become vulnerable to hacking as well.

There Is No Reason Not To Choose WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you commit to implementing basic website security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly updated, there is no reason why you should not use WordPress to power your web site or blog.

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 Your WordPress Website

A vulnerable website offers malicious users with a platform for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Prevent Botnets And Hackers From Finding & Attacking Your Web Sites With Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress

If you are currently using an older WordPress version remember to back up your WordPress files before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

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

References Used In This Article

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 web site and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To learn more about using the WP CMS platform please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

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