In April 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to a global-scale brute force attack.

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

(WordPress often comes under attack by hackers, due to its global popularity)

On March 11, 2014, technology sites began reporting that 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Image source: BlogDefender website)

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

Whenever worldwide brute force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to ask if WordPress really is a safe software for running their sites.

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS which makes it a frequent target for hacking attempts. But do you need to be concerned about WordPress as 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 with the facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and the situation is getting 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 not a matter of if, but when before a malicious user will attempt to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

The “Open Source” Argument

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

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

The argument, 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 all of it in detail, searching for security vulnerabilities in the code that can be exploited …

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

While it’s true that WordPress is free and hackers can easily go through the code looking for security vulnerabilities and weaknesses that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source software platform actually makes it a lot more secure in several ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress has the support of a large volunteer community that consists of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a large volunteer community of thousands of developers is responsible for keeping the core application code up-to-date. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

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

(WordPress is built and maintained by a large community of volunteer members. Image source: WordPress.org)

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

(WordPress is continually being improved by thousands of committed individuals community of web developers and users. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

The WordPress community support system is very responsive and anyone can contribute to the process of fixing security issues.

For example:

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

This is the reason why the core development team is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you continually need to keep your site updated and maintained …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary Applications

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

WordPress is free to download, use and modify, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the platform. Can a proprietary technology 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 Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms)

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

For example, the chart below shows the number of security vulnerabilities found in popular CMS platforms …

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

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

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

WordPress Is Not Always To Blame

Whenever WordPress sites are attacked en masse, don’t be quick to place the blame on 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“, a large number of website owners have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their websites were compromised after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern is the fact that many security problems seem to be related to site owners running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated version of WordPress. Screenshot image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-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. Screenshot source: WebDesign.org)

Like many modern web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security problems that can 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 Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

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

In an article 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 presence online, including banks, global corporations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting WordPress Blog Security

Other studies on issues that affect website security point to factors like:

• No platform is immune to security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to outdated software.
• The biggest vulnerability of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security processes need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting are only as secure as the least safe site on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on your server can potentially become 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 commit to implementing basic website 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’s no reason to avoid using WordPress.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks see this article:  WordPress Brute Force Attack Prevention Measures

A compromised web site offers hackers with a valuable resource for launching denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to botnet and hacker attacks. Go here to learn more:

• How To Prevent Malicious Cyber Attacks On Your WP Blog From Hackers And Botnets

If you are using older WordPress versions make sure to back up your site 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 your web site or blog to its previous configuration.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate And Keep Your WP Web Sites Protected With Backup Creator WP Plugin

References

The above statistics 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, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

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