In 2013 a global brute force attack struck WordPress installations on almost every host server in existence.

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

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

On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that over 160,000+ legitimate WordPress websites had been hacked.

(Over 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)

As reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When brute-force attacks on WordPress sites take place on a worldwide scale, it’s natural for website owners to question if WordPress really is a safe application for building and running an online presence.

WordPress powers millions of sites around the world, which makes it an obvious target for malicious attacks by hackers. But should you really be concerned about WordPress as being a secure web platform?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

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

It’s probably safe to 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 you use!

Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but when before a malicious user will attempt to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”Isn’t Open Source Software Vulnerable?”

Some people will often try and argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for running websites or blogs because having open source code means that anyone can view how the software was built.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can study the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download the code and study it in detail, searching for security holes they can exploit …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but when before your website will be targeted by hackers … WordPress or no WordPress!)

While it’s true that WordPress is a free application and hackers can easily go through the code searching for weaknesses or vulnerabilities they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in a number of ways.

The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by a global volunteer community of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a community of thousands of volunteers around the world is responsible for keeping the software code up-to-date. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves largely through the effort of a global community working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users committed to improving the application, fixing bugs and making it safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by a large community of volunteer web developers. Screenshot source: make.wordpress.org)

The moment any security weaknesses are identified by developers or users, these are immediately reported in user forums and addressed by the WordPress development team …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by a global community community of developers and users. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

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

For example:

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

This is the reason why the WordPress community is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you continually need to keep your site updated and maintained …

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

Contrast the benefits of using an open source CMS platform like WordPress with proprietary platforms where often a much smaller 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 business presence online on a secure platform.

WordPress is free to download, modify and use, and hundreds 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 CMS platform that they can download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management applications, research shows that WordPress 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 …

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

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to keep updated, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, sites built with WordPress had significantly less exposure to risk …

(Blog Defender – CMS Tests. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame The Technology

When WordPress sites get attacked en masse, don’t be too quick to blame the WordPress CMS platform.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” which is published by a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises called StopBadware and security vendor Commtouch, most webmasters are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or deal with compromises.

In fact, over sixty percent of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their sites had been compromised by hackers after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern is the fact that many security-related issues come from site owners running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many WordPress users have not upgraded their WordPress software. Source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at 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 CMS core, while 70% – 80% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions …

(WordPress Security Issues. Source: WebDesign.org)

Like many modern software applications, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security problems that may arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, plugins, and themes up-to-date.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!

The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security has even caused the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime in and reply to posts online.

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, including banks, global corporations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their presence online, not just bloggers.

Other Factors That Can Affect WP Security

Other areas that can affect WP blog security include issues like:

• No platform is completely protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The main vulnerability in all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. Security processes need constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting accounts are only as safe as the least secure site on the hosting grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on the shared server becomes vulnerable.

There’s No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Use WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is as secure as most of the leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you continue to implement basic website security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly updated, there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t use WordPress to run your website or blog.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article:  10 Security Measures That Can Help Prevent Brute Force Attacks On Your WordPress Site

A vulnerable site provides hackers with a platform for distributed attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to bot and hacker attacks. Go here to learn more:

• Blog Defender Review

If you are using older WordPress versions remember to 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.

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 fully automate your site backups here: Backup, Duplicate And Protect Your WP Websites And Blogs With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

References Used In This Article

The above facts 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, this article has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress please click on links to visit other articles published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

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