In early 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to worldwide brute force attacks.

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

(Powering millions of websites around the world makes WordPress an obvious target for hacker attacks)

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

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 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)

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

When attacks on WordPress sites seem to increase, it’s natural for website owners to start questioning just how secure the WordPress platform is for running an online presence.

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS making it a frequent target for malicious attacks by hackers. But do you 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 consider using WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and this is getting worse.

It’s safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time … regardless of the web platform your website has been built with!

Since it’s not 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?

”How Can Open Source Software Keep Hackers Away?”

Many people often argue that WordPress is not a secure platform for building and running a web presence because its open source code means that anyone can view how the program works.

Open-source CMS software 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 anyone can access the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download all of the code and go through all of it in detail, looking for vulnerabilities that they can exploit …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but when before someone will try to hack your website … 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 or vulnerabilities that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source application actually makes it a lot more secure in many ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a global volunteer community that consists of thousands of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(A global community build, maintain and update. Source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of a global community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from hundreds of individuals committed to improving the software and making the WordPress platform safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by a global community of users. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

The moment any security issues are discovered by developers or users, these are recorded in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

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

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anybody can contribute to improving the software.

For example:

• If you discover bugs or security holes, you can report these by emailing 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 WordPress is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs frequently up-to-date …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an ”open” platform like WordPress is that users benefit from a large community of developers who continually contribute to make the software more secure. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” CMS platforms are normally built by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, software maintenance, bug fixes and updates.

The WordPress CMS is free to download, use and modify, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the software. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver users a free application that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, there is valid research showing 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 each of these open source platforms during a given period …

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

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

(WordPress users are less exposed to security threats than other CMS platform users. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame WordPress

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

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” which is published by security vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises, many webmasters 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 sixty percent of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t know how their sites were compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern is the fact that many security problems seem to be related to site owners running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated WordPress version. Screenshot source: 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 found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

(WordPress Security Issues. Screenshot: WebDesign.org)

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

WordPress … Secure Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is has even led Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime in and reply to posts online.

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

Other Areas That Can Affect Site Security

Other issues that can affect security include:

• No platform is completely protected from security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The main security risk in 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 constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting accounts are only as secure as the least safe website on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on the server are potentially vulnerable to hacking as well.

There Is No Reason To Avoid Choosing WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you commit to implementing basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly updated, there is no reason why you shouldn’t choose WordPress.

WordPress Security – Tips

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

A compromised web site offers hackers with a platform to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and bots. Go here to learn more:

• How To Prevent Malicious Intrusions On Your WordPress Blog From Hackers And Botnets

If you are using outdated versions of WordPress remember to make a complete backup before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to back up your files manually, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Copy & Keep Your WordPress Websites And Blogs Protected With Backup Creator WP Plugin

References

The facts quoted in this article were sourced from the following sites:

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

Hopefully, the above information has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business web site please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles are published.

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