In early 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to a worldwide brute force attack.

These attacks were caused by botnets (computers infected with malware and programmed to attack other vulnerable computers).

(WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system making it a frequent target for attempted attacks by hackers)

On March 11, 2014, technology sites reported that 162,000 WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Screenshot image: 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 security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to start questioning just how secure WordPress is as a software for building and running their sites.

Being the world’s most used CMS makes WordPress a target for hacking attacks. 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 consider using WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start with the facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and things are 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 … regardless of the web platform you use!

Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but 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

Some people argue that WordPress should not be used for running a business online because it is 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 WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can view the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain the code and go through every single line in detail, searching for security holes they can exploit …

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

While it’s true that WordPress is free and hackers can easily go through the code looking for weaknesses or vulnerabilities that can be exploited (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open software platform actually makes it more secure in a number of ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a huge community that consists 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 …

(The WordPress core application is built, maintained and updated by a large community of web developers. Source: WordPress.org)

WordPress evolves because of the effort of hundreds of committed individuals working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users who, at any one time, are focused on improving the application and making WordPress safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by an open community of volunteers. Image source: WordPress.org)

The moment any security holes are discovered by developers or users, the WordPress development team are then notified …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by a global community community of developers and users. Image source: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is very responsive and anybody can contribute to the process of getting bugs fixed.

For example:

• If you come across bugs or security vulnerabilities, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WordPress plugin, you can report these by sending an email to plugins@wordpress.org.

This is why WordPress is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you need to keep your sites and blogs frequently up-to-date …

(WordPress continually releases new updates to plug security exploits)

WordPress 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 make the software more secure. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS application is normally developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, software maintenance, bug fixes and updates.

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

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms

(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 leading Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in each of these CMS platforms …

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

Other research shows that, because WordPress is easy to use and update, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, WordPress sites had significantly less exposure to risk …

(WordPress users are less exposed to exploits than other CMS platform users. Screenshot image: BlogDefender.com)

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

When WordPress sites are subjected to brute-force attacks, you shouldn’t be quick to blame WordPress.

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 threats their websites are exposed to, how to 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 were hacked after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern, however, is the fact that many security problems seem to be related to users running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

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

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only between 25% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

(WordPress Security Issues. Image source: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust software platforms, WordPress is updated regularly in order to address new security vulnerabilities that can arise. Improving 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 Is Secure – Just Ask Any Bank That Uses It!

The amount of misinformation about WordPress security has even led the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, 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 …

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, leading brands and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their presence online, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect WordPress Security

Other issues that can affect WordPress website security include things such as:

• No platform is completely safe from hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The biggest weakness in all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security systems require constant monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Webhosting server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as safe as the least safe site on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on the server can potentially become vulnerable.

There’s No Reason Not To Use WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you commit to implementing basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there’s no reason not to 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:  How To Protect Your WordPress Site From Brute Force Attacks

A vulnerable web site presents malicious users with a resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and use your site to steal information from innocent people. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers. Go here to learn more:

• Blog Defender Security Plugin – How To Make Your Blog Invisible To Hackers & Bots

If you are currently using an older version of WordPress remember to make a full site backup 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 perform manual backups, there are a number of plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Copy & Protect Your WordPress Sites With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

Article References

The statistics quoted above were sourced from the following sites:

• 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 build a better business online. To learn more about using the WordPress content management software please click on links to visit other posts published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

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