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

These attacks were caused by botnets (computers infected with malware and programmed to attack other vulnerable installations).

(Powering millions of websites worldwide makes WordPress an obvious target for malicious attacks by hackers)

In March 2014, many leading technology sites began reporting that over 162,000 WordPress sites had been hacked.

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Image: 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 leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When brute force attacks on WordPress sites happen on a worldwide scale, it’s natural for people to ask just how safe and secure WordPress is as a software for running their sites.

WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attacks by hackers, due to its global popularity. But should you 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 are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s getting worse.

It’s safe to 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 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?

Is “Open Source” Safe?

Many people argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running web sites because it’s a freely available open source software application.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can view the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily get hold of all of the code and study it in detail, searching for weaknesses and vulnerabilities that could be exploited …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but when before your website will be targeted by malicious 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 looking for security weaknesses or vulnerabilities they can exploit (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.

The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by a community consisting of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a global volunteer community of thousands of developers is responsible for keeping the platform up-to-date. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves largely through the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of minds dedicated to improving the application, identifying and fixing security issues and making WordPress safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a global community of volunteers. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)

As soon as a security issue is identified by developers or users, these are then logged in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

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

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

For example:

• If you notice bugs and security vulnerabilities, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WP plugin, you can also report these by sending an email to plugins@wordpress.org.

This is one of the reasons why the WordPress team releases new updates so frequently, and why you continually need to keep your site regularly updated …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

Compare what we have just discussed above with proprietary platforms where often the responsibility for maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a smaller team of developers with limited resources and you will quickly understand the security benefits of using WordPress to run your website or blog 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 technology. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management applications, there is valid research to support the fact that the WordPress CMS is safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in each of these platforms during a certain period …

(WordPress has less security vulnerabilities than other leading CMS applications. Image source: National Vulnerability Database)

Other studies also indicate that, because WordPress is easy to use and update, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites built with WordPress had fewer exposure to risk …

(Blog Defender – CMS Tests. Image source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame WordPress

If someone breaks into your WordPress site, don’t be quick to place the blame on the WordPress CMS platform.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” which is published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, many website owners have no idea about 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 in this report didn’t know how their sites had been hacked after an attack …

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

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

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. Image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined 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 CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

(WordPress Security Issues. Screenshot: WebDesign.org)

Like many modern web platforms, WordPress is regularly updated to deal with new security issues that can arise. Improving software security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins updated to the latest version.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

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

In a blog post 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, including banks, large organizations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting Blog Security

Other factors that can affect security include:

• No platform is immune to hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to outdated software.
• The biggest security risk of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes require regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting are only as safe as the least safe website on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then all sites on the server are potentially vulnerable.

There’s No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Choose WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you implement basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) up-to-date, there is no reason why you shouldn’t use WordPress.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks see this article:  How To Protect Your WordPress Website From Brute Force Attacks

A vulnerable website offers malicious users with a platform to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress makes your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots. Learn more about it here:

• Secure Your WordPress Websites From Hackers And Bots

If you are using older WordPress versions make sure you back up your files 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 files manually, there are many plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Backup, Clone & Protect Your WP Websites And Blogs With Backup Creator WP Plugin

Article References

For more information on the above, refer to the sites below:

• ITProPortal.com
• National Vulnerability Database
• BlogDefender.com
• UpAndUpStudios.com
• StopBadware.org
• Sucuri.net
• WebDesign.org
• Quora.com
• Ma.tt

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using the WP software please see other posts we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles or tutorials are published.

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