In early 2013 a global brute force attack struck WordPress installations on virtually every web host in existence around the world.

These attacks were caused by infected computer networks programmed to attack other vulnerable installations, also commonly known as “botnets”.

(WordPress often is targeted by hackers, due to its global popularity)

In March 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 162,000 WordPress websites had been hacked.

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Screenshot: 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 flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When worldwide brute-force attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to start asking if WordPress really is a secure software for running a business web presence.

Powering millions of websites and blogs around the world makes WordPress an obvious target for hackers. But should you be concerned about WordPress as being a secure platform for building your business presence online?

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

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

Thousands of websites are attacked 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.

You can safely 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 not a matter of if, but when before your website is targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

Is “Open Source” Software Secure?

Some people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for running a website or blog because its “open source” code is freely available.

Open-source CMS programs like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to use and anyone has access to the entire underlying 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 easily obtain the code and study every line, looking for security weaknesses that they can exploit …

(It’s not a matter of if, but when before a malicious user attempts to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

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

This is because WordPress is supported by a large volunteer community consisting of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help to improve the platform and make WordPress more secure …

(The WordPress platform is built, maintained and updated by a huge community of developers worldwide. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves through the effort of thousands of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from thousands of web developers, designers and users who are dedicated to improving the application, fixing bugs and making it safer for every user …

(WordPress is built and maintained by an open community of web developers. Screenshot: WordPress.org)

As soon as a security weakness is identified by developers or users, these are normally reported in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

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

The WordPress community support system is very responsive and anyone can help contribute to fixing the software.

For example:

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

This is why the WordPress team is constantly releasing new version updates, and why you need to keep your sites and blogs frequently updated …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to address security issues)

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

The WordPress CMS is 100% free to download, modify and use, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the platform. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as you wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management applications, research shows that WordPress is actually 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 discovered in popular open source platforms during a given period …

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

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

(WordPress has less exposure to risk than other CMS applications. Image source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame The WordPress CMS

If someone hacks into your WordPress site, 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 website owners are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with security compromises.

In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed for the report didn’t even know how their websites had been compromised after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern for WordPress users, is the fact that many security issues seem to be related to website owners not upgrading their CMS software to a newer version …

(Many WordPress users have not updated their WP sites. Screenshot 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 third-party code are found in the WordPress CMS core, while 65% – 80% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

(WordPress Security Issues. Screenshot: WebDesign.org)

Like all robust software platforms, WordPress is regularly updated in order to deal with new security problems that can arise. Improving software security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress software, themes, plugins, etc..

WordPress … Good Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation 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 around the world, including banks, global corporations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their websites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting Website Security

Other research on issues that play a role in WordPress security point to areas like:

• No platform is completely protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The main vulnerability in all content management platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. Security processes need frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Hosting server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting are only as safe as the least safe site on the grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on that server can potentially become vulnerable to hacking as well.

There Is 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 security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their technology platform) and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly up-to-date, 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:  WordPress Brute-Force Attack Prevention Measures

A vulnerable site presents hackers with a resource for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• Prevent Hackers From Attacking Your Blog With Blog Defender

If you are using older WordPress versions remember to back up everything before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. 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 WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Backup, Copy And Keep Your WP Sites Protected With Backup Creator WP 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, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress for a business website please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

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