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

These attacks were caused by botnets (computers infected with viruses and programmed to attack other installations with security vulnerabilities).

(WordPress often comes under attack by hackers)

In March 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 160,000+ WordPress sites had been hacked.

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

When attacks on WordPress sites happen, it’s natural for people to question just how safe and secure the WordPress platform is for running a business web presence.

WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attacks by hackers, due to its popularity. But should you be concerned about WordPress as a secure platform for building your business presence online?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and things are 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 before someone attempts 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 your website will be targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Are “Open Source” Software Applications Safe?

Many people will often argue that WordPress is not a secure platform for building and running a business online because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can examine the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain the code and go through it, looking for holes and weaknesses in the code that they can exploit …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone attempts to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

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

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

(With WordPress, an open community of hundreds of web developers is responsible for keeping the core application code maintained and updated. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of a global volunteer community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from hundreds of minds committed to improving the application and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

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

As soon as any security vulnerability is identified by developers or users, these are then recorded in user forums and addressed by the WordPress developers …

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

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anyone can help contribute to securing the software.

For example:

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

This is why the WordPress team is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you need to keep your sites and blogs regularly updated …

(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to plug security weaknesses)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

Compare what we have just discussed above with proprietary platforms where often a smaller team with limited time and resources is responsible for developing, monitoring and improving software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will very quickly realize the value 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 thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the platform. Can a proprietary CMS 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 CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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

For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities discovered in popular open source CMS platforms …

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

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

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

Don’t Blame The Platform

When WordPress sites get attacked en masse, users shouldn’t be too quick to place the blame on WordPress.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” which is published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, many website owners are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with security compromises.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t know how their websites were hacked after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern for WordPress users, however, is the fact that most security-related issues come from site owners running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated WordPress version. Screenshot: 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 actually found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

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

Like many modern web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to address new security vulnerabilities that can arise. Improving software 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 – Just Ask Any Bank That Uses It!

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

In a blog post 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 use WordPress to build their websites, including banks, global corporations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues Affecting WP Website Security

Other areas that can affect WordPress site security include:

• No platform is protected from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main security vulnerability in all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes need frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting accounts are only as safe as the least secure site on the grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then all sites on that server are potentially vulnerable.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Using WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, 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 web platform) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly updated, there is no reason to avoid choosing WordPress to run your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

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

A vulnerable website provides hackers with a resource for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots. Learn more about it here:

• How To Hide Your WP Website From Bots And Hackers

If you are using outdated WordPress versions make sure you back up everything before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore things back to their former configuration.

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 site backups here: Back Up, Copy & Keep Your WP Web Sites Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

References

For more information on the above, see the following sources:

• 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 build a better business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website please click on links to visit other posts we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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