In 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to global-scale brute force attacks.

These attacks were caused by networks of infected computers programmed to attack other vulnerable computers (botnets).

(WordPress powers millions of websites and blogs worldwide, which makes it an obvious target for attempted hacking attacks)

In March 2014, many leading technology sites reported that over 162,000 WordPress sites had been hacked.

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

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 flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When global brute force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to ask just how secure the WordPress platform is for running an online presence.

WordPress often is targeted 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 consider choosing WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and this is only going to get worse.

You can safely assume that if your website or blog hasn’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 a malicious user will try to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

The “Open Source” Argument For Security Vulnerabilities

Many people will often try and argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running a business online because it’s an “open source” and freely available program.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can view the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can easily obtain all of the code and study it in great detail, looking for security holes that could be exploited …

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

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

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

(With WordPress, a huge volunteer community of developers is responsible for keeping the platform code up-to-date. Screenshot image: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves because of the effort of a global volunteer community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from hundreds of minds committed to improving the application, fixing bugs and making it safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by an open community of experienced web developers. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

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

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is very responsive and anyone can contribute to the process of fixing security issues.

For example:

• If you find bugs or 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 notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is the reason why the WordPress community releases new security updates so often, and why you need to keep your site updated and maintained …

(WordPress continually releases new version updates to address security weaknesses)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Applications

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an ”open” technology like WordPress is that users benefit from a large community of developers who continually contribute to improve software security. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” software applications are typically developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, maintenance services, 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 platform 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 to support the fact 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 how many security vulnerabilities were found in popular platforms during a certain period …

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

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to keep up-to-date, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, WordPress sites had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are less exposed to security risks than other CMS platform users. Source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame The WordPress CMS

If someone compromises the security of your WordPress site, don’t be quick to place the blame on WordPress.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by security vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises, a large number of webmasters have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with web security compromises.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their sites were compromised after an attack …

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

Of more immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security issues seem to be related to website owners forgetting to update their CMS software to a newer version …

(Many WordPress sites are running on outdated versions. Image source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are actually 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 all robust software platforms, WordPress is updated regularly to deal with new security risks that may arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, plugins, and themes up-to-date.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

The amount of misinformation online about how secure WordPress is has even caused the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime into the online debate.

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

Other Issues Affecting Site Security

Other studies on issues that affect WordPress security point to things like:

• No platform is completely safe 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 weakness in all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security processes 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 grid, so if another user on your shared server gets their site broken into, then every site on the server becomes vulnerable to hacking also.

There’s No Reason Why You Should Not Choose WordPress

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

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

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

An unsecured web site offers malicious users with a valuable resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and use your site to steal information from innocent people. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets. Learn more about this plugin here:

• How To Prevent Bots & Hackers From Finding Your Web Sites With Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

If you are using outdated WordPress versions remember to back up your WordPress website before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to back up your data manually, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Back Up, Duplicate And Keep Your WP Web Site Protected With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

Article References

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 post has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about using WordPress please click on links to visit other posts we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

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