In early 2013 a worldwide brute force attack hit WordPress installations across almost every web host in existence.

These attacks were caused by botnets (infected computer networks programmed to attack other installations with security vulnerabilities).

(WordPress powers millions of sites around the world, which makes it a target for hackers)

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

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

According to leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WP 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 website owners to start asking just how safe and secure WordPress is as an application for running an online presence.

WordPress often is targeted by hackers. But do you really need to be concerned about WordPress as a secure platform for building your business presence online?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

Thousands of websites and blogs are attacked 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 the situation 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 a matter of when before someone attempts to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

The “Open Source” Argument For Security Weaknesses

Some people argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running websites or blogs because it’s a freely available open source software application.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can study the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain all of the code and go through every line, searching for security holes that could be exploited …

(It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone tries to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is free to download and hackers can easily access it and study the code looking for security holes or vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source software platform actually makes it more secure in several ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by a community of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help to improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a huge community of thousands of web developers is responsible for keeping the core application code up-to-date. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

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

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

The moment any security problems are discovered by developers or users, the WordPress developers are then made aware of it …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anybody can contribute to the process of getting vulnerabilities plugged.

For example:

• If you notice bugs and security exploits, you can report these by emailing security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WP plugin, you can also report these by emailing plugins@wordpress.org.

This is why the WordPress community releases new security updates regularly, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs regularly maintained …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

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

WordPress is free to download, modify and use, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the software. 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 applications, there is valid research showing that the WordPress CMS is actually safer than other Open Source CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla.

For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities found in each of these platforms during a certain period …

(National Vulnerability Database – Security Vulnerabilities IN CMS Platforms. Source: National Vulnerability Database)

Other research shows that, because WordPress is easy to use and to keep up-to-date, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, WordPress sites had less exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are less exposed to threats than other CMS platform users. Image source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame WordPress When Things Go Wrong

When WordPress sites get attacked en masse, don’t be 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 have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t know how their websites had been compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern, however, is the fact that most security-related problems arise from users not upgrading their CMS software to a newer version …

(Many WordPress sites are running on outdated versions. 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 actually found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

(WP Security Issues. Source: WebDesign.org)

Like many web platforms, WordPress is regularly updated in order to deal with new security issues that could arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress software, plugins, themes, etc..

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

The amount of misinformation online 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 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 around the world, including banks, global corporations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers.

Other Issues Affecting Security

Other areas that can affect security include:

• No platform is completely safe from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The biggest security risk in all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security systems require frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Hosting server setup. For example, sites on shared webhosting servers are only as secure as the least secure site on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on that shared server becomes vulnerable.

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 website security measures (which all website owners should do) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly updated, there’s really no reason why you should not choose WordPress to power your web site or blog.

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

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

An unsecured web site presents malicious users with a valuable platform to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and use your website to defraud innocent people. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to bot and hacker attacks. Go here to learn more:

• Secure Your WordPress Web Sites From Bots And Hackers

If you are currently using an outdated version of WordPress make sure you back up your website fully before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore things back to their former state.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Duplicate And Keep Your WordPress Websites And Blogs Protected With Backup Creator WP Plugin

References

The facts quoted above 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 get better business results 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 or tutorials are published.

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