In 2013 a worldwide brute force attack hit WordPress installations across almost every WP host server in existence around the world.

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

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

In March 2014, technology sites began reporting that over 160,000+ legitimate WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Screenshot source: 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 security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to question just how secure WordPress is as an application for running an online presence.

Powering millions of websites worldwide makes WordPress an obvious target for hackers. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as being a secure platform for building your business website?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and it’s getting worse.

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

Is “Open Source” Software Really Safe?

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

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can view the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download all of the code and go through every line, looking for vulnerabilities they can exploit …

(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 searching for security holes and vulnerabilities that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source platform actually makes it more secure in several ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by an open volunteer community of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help to improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, an open community of developers worldwide is responsible for keeping the code updated. Source: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress evolves largely through the effort of a global community working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users committed to improving the software, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making WordPress safer for every user …

(WordPress is built by an open community of experienced web developers. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

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

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

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anybody can help contribute to the process of addressing vulnerabilities.

For example:

• If you come across bugs and security weaknesses, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a plugin, you can also report these by notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is why the WordPress community releases new security updates on a regular basis, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress site updated and maintained …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary Applications

Contrast what we have just discussed above with proprietary CMS technologies where often the responsibility for maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a much smaller team of developers with limited resources and you will quickly understand the value of using WordPress to power your web presence on a secure platform.

WordPress is 100% free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the software. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users a completely free software that they can download, use and modify as they 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 actually safer than other Open Source CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were found in each of these open source CMS platforms …

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

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

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

WordPress Should Not Be Blamed

When WordPress sites are attacked, you shouldn’t be too quick to blame WordPress.

According to security vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, a large number of website owners are not fully aware of the security 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 for the report didn’t know how their websites had been hacked after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security problems seem to be related to users running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

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

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only between 25% – 30% 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 image: WebDesign.org)

Like many software applications, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security issues that could arise. Improving security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, plugins, and themes updated to the latest version.

WordPress … Good Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security has even led the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, 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 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 choose WordPress to build their web presence, including banks, global corporations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues That Can Affect WordPress Security

Other areas that can affect website security include:

• No platform is safe from hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The biggest security weakness of all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes need constant 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 another user on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on your server becomes vulnerable.

There Is No Reason Why You Should Not Choose WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most of the leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you commit to implementing basic web security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their technology platform) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly updated, there’s really no reason not to choose WordPress for your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  10 Things You Can Do To Prevent Brute Force Attacks On Your WordPress Site Or Blog

An unsecured blog provides hackers with a valuable platform for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to bots and hackers. Learn more about this plugin here:

• How To Prevent Malicious Cyberattacks On Your WordPress Web Site By Hackers

If you are using outdated WordPress versions make sure to back up everything before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Backup, Copy & Protect Your WordPress Web Site With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

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 web site and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using the WP platform please click on links to visit other posts we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.

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