In 2013 a worldwide brute force attack hit WordPress installations across virtually every WP hosting server in existence around the world.

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

(Powering millions of sites worldwide makes WordPress an obvious target for hacking)

In March 2014, many leading 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 early 2014. Image source: BlogDefender.com)

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 flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When brute-force attacks on WordPress sites are reported in the media, it’s natural for website owners to question just how secure WordPress is as an application for building and running their websites.

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at 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.

It’s 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 your website has been built with!

Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but when before your website will be targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Are “Open Source” Software Programs Safe?

Many people will often try to argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for building and running web sites because it’s an “open source” and freely available software program.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If anyone can access the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download the code and go through every single line, looking for vulnerabilities in the code that can be exploited …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website is targeted by malicious hackers … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is free and hackers can easily access it and study the code searching for security holes or weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source software platform actually makes it more secure in many ways.

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

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

WordPress evolves because of the effort of hundreds of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from hundreds of individuals committed to improving the application, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making it safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a large community of volunteers. Image: make.wordpress.org)

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

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anyone can help contribute to the process of getting bugs fixed.

For example:

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

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

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary Applications

Compare the benefits of using an open source CMS technology like WordPress with proprietary CMS platforms where often the responsibility for improving software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a much smaller team of developers with limited resources and you will very quickly realize the value of using WordPress to run your websites and blogs on a secure platform.

WordPress is free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the software. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were found in popular open source CMS platforms …

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

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

(BlogDefender.com – CMS Tests. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)

WordPress Is Not Always To Blame

When WordPress sites are subjected to brute-force attacks, 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“, many webmasters are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

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

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

Of immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security issues seem to be related to site owners not upgrading their WordPress software to a newer version …

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

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

(WP Security Issues. Screenshot: WebDesign.org)

Like many web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly to address new security vulnerabilities that can arise. Improving security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, plugins, and themes up-to-date.

WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Use It!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is has even caused Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, 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 around the world use WordPress to build their web presence, including banks, large organizations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors Affecting Site Security

Other areas that can affect security include:

• 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 main vulnerability in all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security systems need to be constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting are only as safe as the least safe site on the hosting grid, so if someone else has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then every site on your shared server is potentially vulnerable to hacking also.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Choosing WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you commit to implementing basic web security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their chosen technology platform) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly updated, there is no reason not to choose WordPress.

WordPress Security – Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  10 Things You Can Do To Help Prevent Brute Force Attacks On WordPress

An unsecured site presents malicious users with a valuable resource for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and bots. Learn more about it here:

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

If you are currently using an older version of WordPress make sure to back up your 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 everything to its former settings.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate & Protect Your WP Web Site With Backup Creator WP Plugin

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 article has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress please click on links to visit other articles we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

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