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

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

(WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS making it a frequent target for hacking attempts)

On March 11, 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 site)

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 described 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.

Whenever attacks on WordPress sites happen, it’s natural for website owners to question just how secure the WordPress platform is for running a business web presence.

Powering millions of websites worldwide makes WordPress an obvious target for hackers. But do you need to be concerned about WordPress as 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 with the facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and this is only going to get worse.

It’s probably safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time before someone attempts to hack into your site … regardless of the web platform you use!

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

How Secure Are “Open Source” Software Programs?

Some people argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running a business online because it’s a freely available open source software program.

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

The argument against using 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 study every single line in detail, searching for holes and weaknesses that they could 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 access it and study the code looking for vulnerabilities or weaknesses they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software), the fact that WordPress is a free, open platform actually makes it a whole lot more secure in several ways.

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

(With WordPress, a volunteer community of developers is responsible for keeping the core application updated. Screenshot: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from thousands of minds dedicated to improving the application and making it safer for every user …

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

As soon as a security weakness is discovered by developers or users, the WordPress developers are then notified …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anyone can help contribute to fixing the platform.

For example:

• If you come across bugs and a security issue, you can report these by sending an email to security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a WordPress plugin, you can report these by emailing plugins@wordpress.org.

This is why the WordPress team releases new updates on a regular basis, and why you continually need to keep your site frequently updated …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to address security issues)

WordPress Vs Proprietary 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 software more secure. By contrast, proprietary or “closed-source” CMS applications are typically built by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, support, bug fixes and software fixes.

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, and hundreds 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 users software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, research shows that WordPress 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 discovered in popular CMS platforms …

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

Other studies also indicate that, because WordPress is easy to use and keep updated, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, WordPress sites had fewer exposure to risk …

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

Don’t Blame WordPress

Whenever WordPress sites are 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“, many webmasters have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with compromises.

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

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

Of more immediate concern, however, is the fact that most security problems seem to be related to website owners not updating their CMS software to a newer version …

(Many WordPress users have not updated their WP sites. Image: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at 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 65% – 75% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

(WordPress Security Issues. Screenshot: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust software platforms, WordPress is updated regularly to address new security problems that could arise. Improving software security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, themes, and plugins updated to the latest version.

WordPress … Secure Enough For Banks To Use!

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

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 choose WordPress to build their websites, including banks, leading brands, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors That Can Affect Security

Other issues that can affect security include:

• No platform is safe from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to outdated software.
• The biggest security vulnerability of all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security processes require constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared hosting are only as safe as the least safe site on the hosting grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then every site on the shared server can potentially become vulnerable.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Choosing WordPress

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

WordPress Security – Useful Tips

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

An unsecured web site offers malicious users with a valuable resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers. Go here to learn more:

• Hide Your WP Web Sites From Hackers And Bots With Blog Defender Security Plugin

If you are currently using an older WordPress version remember to back up your WordPress website before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore your web site or blog to its previous state.

If you don’t want to back up your files manually, there are a number of free and paid WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Back Up, Copy & Protect Your WP Web Site With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

References

For more information on the above, see the following sources:

• 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 website and how WordPress can help you get better business results online. To learn more about using the WP website management software please see other posts we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

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