In April 2013 a global brute-force attack struck WordPress installations across almost every WP host server in existence.

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

(WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS making it a natural target for attempted hacker attacks)

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

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

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 cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When attacks on WordPress sites are reported in the media, it’s natural for people to ask if WordPress really is a safe software for building and running websites.

WordPress is frequently the target of attacks by hackers, due to its global popularity. But do you really 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 are hacked every year … not just WordPress sites!

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and this is getting worse.

You can safely assume that if you haven’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 no longer a matter of if, but when before a malicious user attempts 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 is not a safe platform for building and running a business online because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can access the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain the code and study every line, searching for security weaknesses they could exploit …

(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 weaknesses and vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source software platform actually makes it more secure in several ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a huge volunteer community consisting of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the software and make WordPress more secure …

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

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from thousands of minds who, at any one time, are focused on improving the code, identifying and fixing security issues and making WordPress safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by a large community of users. Screenshot image: WordPress.org)

The moment any security holes are identified by developers or users, the WordPress development team are then notified …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by an open community of developers and users. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anyone can contribute to fixing the software.

For example:

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

This is the reason why the WordPress community releases new updates regularly, and why you need to keep your site up-to-date …

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

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

Contrast what we have just discussed above with proprietary CMS technologies where often a small team with limited resources is responsible for monitoring and maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will quickly realize the security benefits of using WordPress to run your site on a secure platform.

WordPress is free to download, modify and use, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the platform. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Applications

(CMS Platforms)

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

For example, here is one study showing how many security vulnerabilities were found in popular CMS platforms …

(National Vulnerability Database – Security Vulnerabilities IN CMS Applications. Screenshot image: National Vulnerability Database)

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is easy to use and maintain, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites run on WordPress had less exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are not as exposed to security risks as other CMS platform users. Source: BlogDefender.com)

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

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

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 properly secure a website, or deal with compromised web security.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their sites were compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern, however, 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 around between 25% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while 70% – 75% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

(WP Security Issues. Screenshot source: WebDesign.org)

Like many web platforms, WordPress is updated regularly to address new security issues 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 software, plugins, themes, etc..

WordPress Is Secure – Just Ask Any Bank That Uses It!

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

In an article entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” posted 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, including banks, leading brands and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect Site Security

Other research on issues that play a role in WordPress security point to areas such as:

• No platform is immune to hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main vulnerability of all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security systems require regular monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as safe as the least secure site on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then every site on that shared server becomes vulnerable to being hacked also.

There Is No Reason To Avoid Using WordPress

As you can see, 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.) updated, there is really no reason why you should not use WordPress to power your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – Tips

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

A vulnerable site presents malicious users with a valuable platform to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to botnet and hacker attacks. Learn more about it here:

• Prevent Malicious Intrusions On Your WP Blogs By Hackers & Bots

If you are currently using an outdated WordPress version remember to back up everything before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore everything to its former configuration.

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

References Used In This Article

The facts quoted above 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, 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 using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit other posts we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

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