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

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

(WordPress often is targeted by hackers, due to its popularity)

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

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 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)

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

Whenever global brute-force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to start questioning if WordPress really is a secure platform for running websites.

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS which makes it a target for hacking attacks. But should you 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 definitely choose 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 massive, and this is only going to get worse.

You can safely assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time … 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” Applications?

Many people argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for building and running websites because its “open source” code is freely available.

Open source CMS programs like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to use and anyone can access the entire underlying 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 all of the code and study it, looking for vulnerabilities in the code that can be exploited …

(It’s no longer 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 a free application and hackers can easily go through the code looking for vulnerabilities or weaknesses that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open platform actually makes it a lot more secure in a number of ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a community that consists of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help to improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

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

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of hundreds of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of minds who, at any one time, are focused on improving the software, identifying and fixing security issues and making WordPress safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by a global community of web developers. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

The moment that a security hole is discovered by developers or users, these are then noted in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is very responsive and anybody can help contribute to the improvement of the platform.

For example:

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

This is why WordPress releases new version updates regularly, and why you need to keep your sites and blogs updated and maintained …

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

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Applications

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

WordPress is free to download, use and modify, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the technology. Can a proprietary CMS 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 Applications

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

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

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

Other studies also indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to keep updated, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites built with WordPress had less exposure to risk …

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

Don’t Blame The WordPress CMS

If someone compromises the security of your WordPress site, don’t be too quick to place the blame on the WordPress CMS platform.

According to security vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises 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 security compromises.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their sites were hacked after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern, however, is the fact that most security problems seem to be related to website owners forgetting to update their CMS software to the latest version …

(Many WordPress sites are running on outdated versions. Image source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only around between 20% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress core software, while 65% – 85% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

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

Like all robust web platforms, WordPress is regularly updated in order to deal with new security issues that could arise. Improving security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins up-to-date.

WordPress … Good Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation online about how secure WordPress is has even led Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime into the online discussion.

In a post entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” posted 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, global corporations and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their presence online, not just bloggers.

Other Issues Affecting Site Security

Other issues that can affect security include:

• No platform is completely protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main security weakness in all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security processes require constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Webhosting setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting servers are only as safe as the least safe site on the hosting grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then every site on that server becomes vulnerable.

There’s No Reason Not To Choose 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 website security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there is no reason why you shouldn’t use WordPress to power your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

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

A compromised web site offers hackers with a resource for launching denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• Secure Your WordPress Blog From Botnets And Hackers With Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version remember to back up your WordPress site fully 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 your website to its former state.

If you don’t want to back up your data manually, there are a number of free and paid plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Backup, Duplicate And Protect Your WordPress Sites With Backup Creator WP Plugin

References Used In This Article

The above statistics 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, this article has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about using the WordPress CMS platform please click on links to visit other posts published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

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