In early 2013 a global brute-force attack hit WordPress installations on virtually every WP hosting server in existence.

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

(Being the world’s most popular content management system makes WordPress an obvious target for attacks by hackers)

On March 11, 2014, many technology sites reported that over 162,000 WordPress websites 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)

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

When attacks on WordPress sites attract attention worldwide, it’s natural for people to start asking if WordPress really is a safe software for building and running websites.

Being the world’s most popular CMS makes WordPress a target for hacking. But do you need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure web platform?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s only going to get worse.

It’s safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone does attempt to hack into your site … regardless of the web platform you use!

Since it’s no longer 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?

Are “Open Source” Applications Secure?

Many people will often try and argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running a web presence because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can study the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download all of the code and go through every line, searching for weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the code that they can exploit …

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

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

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

(The WordPress platform is built, maintained and updated by a community of web developers. Image: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of thousands of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from thousands of individuals who are dedicated to improving the software, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making it safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by an open community of volunteer web developers. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

The moment any security holes are discovered by developers or users, these are normally noted in user forums and addressed by the WordPress development team …

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

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anyone can help contribute to the process of fixing security issues.

For example:

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

This is why the WordPress team releases new version updates on a regular basis, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs regularly up-to-date …

(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to address any security weaknesses found)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Platforms

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 platform more secure. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS platform is developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, maintenance services, bug fixes and updates.

The WordPress CMS 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 you a completely free application that you can download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

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

For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities found in each of these open source platforms during a given period …

(WordPress experiences less security vulnerabilities than other leading CMS applications. Screenshot: National Vulnerability Database)

Other studies also show that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and keep up-to-date, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites run on WordPress had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

(WordPress is more secure than other CMS applications. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

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 a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, most webmasters have no idea about 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 know how their websites were compromised after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that most security-related problems result from website owners running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many WordPress users have not upgraded their WP software. Image source: Sucuri.net)

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

(WordPress Security Issues. Source: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust software applications, WordPress is regularly updated in order to deal with new security problems that may 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 online about how secure WordPress is has even led Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime into the debate.

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 choose WordPress to build their websites, including banks, global corporations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting Security

Other factors that can affect WP site security include things like:

• No platform is completely safe from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The biggest threat of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes need constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting are only as secure as the least safe website on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on the server become vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Not To Use 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) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly updated, there’s really no reason why you should not use 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:  Ten Things You Can Do To Prevent Brute-Force Attacks On WordPress

A compromised site provides hackers with a valuable resource for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress makes your WordPress site invisible to botnet and hacker attacks. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are currently using an older WordPress version make sure to back up your website before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

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

References Used In This Article

The above facts were referenced from various 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, the above post has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business website or blog please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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