In early 2013 a worldwide brute force attack struck WordPress installations on almost every host server in existence.
These attacks were caused by botnets (computers infected with viruses and programmed to attack other sites with security vulnerabilities).
(Being the world’s most used CMS makes WordPress a target for hacking attempts)
In March 2014, technology sites reported that over 160,000+ WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 2014. Screenshot image: 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 web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
When worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to question just how safe and secure the WordPress platform is for building and running their websites.
WordPress is the world’s most used content management system which makes it a frequent target for hacking attempts. But do you need to be concerned about WordPress as a secure platform for building your business web presence?
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 some facts …
Thousands of websites 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 it’s only going to get worse.
You can safely 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 you use!
Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but when before your website will be targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?
Is An “Open Source” Software Safe?
Many people often argue that WordPress cannot be a safe platform for building and running websites or blogs because it’s “open source” and freely available software program.
Open source CMS programs like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to use and anyone can view the underlying code.
The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can study the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily get hold of all of the code and go through every single line in detail, searching for security holes that can be exploited …
(It’s no longer a matter of if, but when before someone attempts 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 searching for security weaknesses or vulnerabilities (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open application actually makes it a lot more secure in several ways.
The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by a large volunteer community of hundreds 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 volunteer community of developers is responsible for keeping the core application maintained and updated. Source: WordPress.org)
WordPress evolves because of the effort of hundreds of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from hundreds of web developers, designers and users who, at any one time, are focused on improving the application, fixing bugs and making WordPress safer for every user …
(The WordPress core software is built by a global community of contributors. Screenshot source: WordPress.org)
As soon as any security holes are discovered by developers or users, the WordPress core developers are then notified …
(WordPress is continually being improved upon by thousands of committed individuals community of developers and users. Image source: WordPress.org)
The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anyone can help contribute to the process of getting vulnerabilities plugged.
For example:
- If you notice bugs or a security hole, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
- If you find any 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 so frequently, and why you need to keep your site updated and maintained …
(WordPress continually releases new version updates to plug any security vulnerabilities found)
WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Platforms
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 platform more secure. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” software application would normally be developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, software maintenance, bug fixes and updates.
WordPress is free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the technology. Can a proprietary CMS company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you a completely free CMS application that you can 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 showing that the WordPress CMS is safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.
For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities found in popular CMS platforms …
(WordPress has fewer security vulnerabilities than other CMS applications. Source: National Vulnerability Database)
Other studies also show that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, WordPress sites had less exposure to risk …
(WordPress users are not as exposed to security exploits as other CMS platform users. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
It’s Not WordPress’ Fault
If someone compromises the security of your WordPress site, don’t be quick to place the blame on the WordPress CMS platform.
According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises called StopBadware and security vendor Commtouch, a large number of webmasters are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with web security compromises.
In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their sites were hacked after an attack …
(Many webmasters don’t even know how their sites get hacked. Image source: StopBadware.org)
Of more immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security-related issues result from users forgetting to update their WordPress software to a newer version …
(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. Source: Sucuri.net)
When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are actually found in the WordPress core software, while 65% – 75% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by 3rd-party developers …
(WordPress Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)
Like all robust web applications, WordPress is regularly updated to deal with new security risks that can arise. Improving software security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, plugins, and themes up-to-date.
WordPress Is Secure – Even Banks Use It!
The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security has even caused Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime in and reply to posts online.
In an article 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 around the world, including banks, global corporations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.
Other Factors That Can Affect Blog Security
Other issues that can affect security include areas like:
- No platform is immune to hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using outdated software.
- The main vulnerability of all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security practices.
- Lack of constant system monitoring. Security processes need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
- Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting are only as safe as the least secure website on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on the server can potentially become vulnerable.
There’s No Reason Not To Choose WordPress
As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is quite secure. As long as you commit to implementing basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) up-to-date, there’s no reason why you should not choose WordPress to drive your website or blog.
WordPress Security – Tips
To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article: 10 Security Measures That Can Help To Prevent Brute Force Attacks On WordPress
A compromised site offers malicious users with a valuable resource for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers. Learn more about it here:
If you are currently using an older version of WordPress make sure you back up your site fully before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.
If you don’t want to back up your data manually, there are many free and paid plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Clone & Keep Your WP Websites Protected With Backup Creator WP Plugin
References Used In This Article
The above facts 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 website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.
***
"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie