In 2013 a worldwide brute-force attack struck WordPress installations across almost every web host in existence around the world.

These attacks were caused by infected computer networks programmed to attack other sites (called “botnets”).

(WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system which makes it a frequent target for attempted attacks by malicious users)

In March 2014, many technology sites reported that over 162,000 WordPress web sites 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)

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

When brute force attacks on WordPress sites are reported in the media, it’s natural for website owners to start asking if WordPress really is a safe software for running an online presence.

Being the world’s most used CMS makes WordPress an obvious target for attempted attacks by hackers. But do you need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure platform for building your business web presence?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should definitely consider choosing WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year … not just WordPress sites!

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and this is only going to get worse.

It’s probably 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 not a matter of if, but a matter of when before a malicious user tries to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Is “Open Source” Secure?

Many people will often try and argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running a website or blog because its open source code means that anyone can view how the application code works.

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

The argument, then, goes something like this: If everyone can view the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily get hold of all of the code and go through it, looking for weaknesses and vulnerabilities they could exploit …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but when before a malicious user will attempt 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 holes and weaknesses that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source platform actually makes it a lot more secure in several ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of an open volunteer community comprised of hundreds of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(WordPress is built, maintained and updated by a large community of thousands of developers. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves largely through the effort of a global community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from hundreds of individuals who are dedicated to improving the application and making WordPress safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a global community of web developers. Image: WordPress.org)

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

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

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

For example:

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

This is why the core development team is constantly releasing new version updates, and why you need to keep your site regularly up-to-date …

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

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Platforms

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

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

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, 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 discovered in popular open source CMS platforms …

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

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

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

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

If someone compromises the security of your WordPress site, don’t be quick to blame WordPress.

According to a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises called StopBadware and security vendor Commtouch in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, most website owners have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with compromised web security.

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

(Many 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 issues seem to be related to website owners running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many WordPress users have not updated their WP sites. Screenshot image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only between 25% – 35% percent 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 extensions created by third-party developers …

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

Like all robust web applications, WordPress is updated regularly to deal with new security problems that could arise. Improving security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress.

WordPress … Secure Enough For Banks To Use!

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

In an article entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” posted 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 That Can Affect WP Blog Security

Other factors that can affect WordPress website security include:

• No platform is protected from hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The biggest security threat of all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security processes need to be constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as safe as the least secure website on the hosting grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site broken into, then every site on the shared server can potentially become 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 implement basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there’s 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:  WordPress Brute Force Attack Prevention Measures

An unsecured site presents malicious users with a resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and bots. Go here to learn more:

• Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are using older WordPress versions make sure to back up your WordPress website fully before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to back up your site manually, there are a number of free and paid WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Copy & Protect Your WordPress Web Sites With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

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, the above article has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about using WordPress please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.

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