In early 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to a worldwide brute-force attack.

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

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

On March 11, 2014, technology sites began reporting that over 160,000+ WordPress-powered sites had been hacked.

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

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

Whenever global brute-force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to start questioning just how safe and secure WordPress is as a platform for building and running an online presence.

WordPress is the world’s most used content management system which makes it a natural target for malicious 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 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 attacked every year … not just WordPress sites!

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and the situation is only going to get worse.

It’s probably 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 not a matter of if, but a matter of 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 Vulnerable?”

Many people will often try to argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running websites and blogs because it’s a freely available open source software application.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain the code and study it in detail, looking for vulnerabilities in the code that could be exploited …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before a malicious user attempts 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 weaknesses and vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source platform actually makes it a lot more secure in many ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of a global volunteer community that consists of hundreds of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a large community of thousands of volunteers around the world is responsible for keeping the platform code up-to-date. Source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of hundreds of committed individuals working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from hundreds of web developers, designers and users who, at any one time, are focused on improving the application and making it safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by an open community of volunteer members. Image: make.wordpress.org)

As soon as a security hole is identified by developers or users, the WordPress developers are then made aware of it …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is very responsive and anybody can help contribute to the process of fixing security issues.

For example:

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

This is the reason why the WordPress community releases new version updates regularly, and why you need to keep your site regularly updated …

(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to plug any security issues found)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Platforms

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 smaller team of developers with limited resources and you will quickly realize the security benefits of using WordPress to run your website or blog on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the platform. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users a completely free software that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, the chart below shows the number of security vulnerabilities found in popular open source platforms during a given period …

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

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is easy to use and to keep updated, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, WordPress sites had fewer exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are not as exposed to risks as other CMS platform users. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame WordPress

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

According to security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, a large number of webmasters are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with security compromises.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their websites had been compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern, however, is the fact that most security-related problems come from users simply not updating their WordPress software to a newer version …

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated version of WordPress. Image source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only between 20% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are actually found in the WordPress CMS core, while 70% – 85% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by 3rd-party developers …

(WP Security Issues. Image source: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust web applications, WordPress is updated regularly to deal with new security threats that may arise. Improving security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins updated to the latest version.

WordPress … Good Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is has even led 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 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 choose WordPress to build their websites, including banks, global corporations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting WordPress Site Security

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

• No platform is safe from hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to using software that is out of date.
• The main security vulnerability of all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes need to be constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Hosting setup. For example, websites on shared hosting are only as secure as the least secure website on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on your server can potentially become vulnerable to hacking as well.

There Is No Reason To Avoid Using WordPress

As you can see, 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 web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) up-to-date, there is no reason to avoid using WordPress.

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

A vulnerable blog presents malicious users with a valuable platform to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and bots. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Make Your Websites Invisible To Hackers & Bots With Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress Web Sites

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version remember to back up your site 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 perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Backup, Copy & Protect Your WordPress Web Site With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

Article References

The above facts were referenced from various online sources, including those listed below:

• ITProPortal.com
• National Vulnerability Database
• BlogDefender.com
• UpAndUpStudios.com
• StopBadware.org
• Sucuri.net
• WebDesign.org
• Quora.com
• Ma.tt

Hopefully, this information has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business website or blog please see other articles published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

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