In early 2013 a global brute-force attack began hitting WordPress installations across virtually every web host in existence around the world.

These attacks were caused by botnets (infected computer networks programmed to attack other installations).

(WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers)

In March 2014, many technology sites reported that 160,000+ legitimate WordPress sites had been hacked.

(160,000+ WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in March 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)

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 brute force attacks on WordPress sites increase in frequency, it’s natural for people to question if WordPress really is a secure software for building and running websites.

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS making it a frequent target for hacking. 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 using WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at some facts …

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

The scale of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is rising, and things are getting worse.

It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’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 your website has been built with!

Since it’s no longer 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?

The “Open Source” Argument For Security Weaknesses

Some people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for building and running web sites because having open source code means that anyone can view how the software program runs.

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

The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can access the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download all of the code and go through it, looking for weaknesses and vulnerabilities that could be exploited …

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

While it’s true that WordPress is free and hackers can easily access it and study the code looking for security vulnerabilities and weaknesses 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 several ways.

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

(A community of thousands of developers around the world is responsible for building and updating the WordPress core application. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

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

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

As soon as any security issue is identified by developers or users, the WordPress developers are then notified …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by an open community of developers and users. Image source: make.wordpress.org)

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anybody can contribute to the process of getting bugs fixed.

For example:

• If you notice bugs and a security exploit, you can report these by emailing security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WordPress plugin, you can also report these by sending an email to plugins@wordpress.org.

This is one of the reasons why the WordPress team is constantly releasing new updates, and why you continually need to keep your site regularly updated …

(WordPress continually releases new version updates to plug any security holes found)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Applications

Contrast what we have just discussed above with proprietary CMS technologies where often a smaller team with limited time and resources is responsible for monitoring and improving software security, fixing bugs, etc., and you will quickly realize the value of using WordPress to power your business presence online on a secure platform.

The WordPress CMS is free to download, use and modify, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the technology. Can a proprietary technology 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 Vs Other Open Source CMS Applications

(CMS Platforms - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management applications, there is valid research showing that the WordPress CMS is actually safer than other leading Open Source CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla.

For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in popular platforms during a given period …

(National Vulnerability Database – Security Vulnerabilities IN CMS Platforms. Source: National Vulnerability Database)

Other research indicates that, because WordPress is easy to use and maintain, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security vulnerabilities, sites built with WordPress had less exposure to risk …

(WordPress has significantly less exposure to risk than other leading CMS platforms. Source: BlogDefender.com)

Don’t Blame The Platform

When WordPress sites get subjected to brute-force attacks, don’t be quick to place the blame on the WordPress CMS platform.

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware, a large number of website owners are not fully aware of the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or deal with compromised web security.

In fact, 63% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their sites had been compromised after an attack …

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

Of immediate concern, however, is the fact that most security issues seem to be related to site owners running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …

(Many WordPress sites use outdated versions. Source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only between 20% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in third-party code are found in the WordPress CMS core, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally for WordPress …

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

Like many software applications, WordPress is regularly updated in order to address new security vulnerabilities that can arise. Improving software security is an ongoing concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, plugins, and themes updated to the latest version.

WordPress … Good Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is has even led Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime in and reply to posts online.

In a post entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” posted 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 around the world, including banks, global corporations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers.

Other Issues That Can Affect Blog Security

Other factors that can affect WP blog security include things such as:

• No platform is protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using outdated software.
• The main security threat in all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security practices.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security systems need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Hosting server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as safe as the least secure site on the 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 Why You Shouldn’t Use WordPress

As you can see, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you remember to implement basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) updated, there’s really no reason why you should not use WordPress.

WordPress Security – Practical Tips

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

A compromised blog offers malicious users with a valuable platform for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to bots and hackers. Learn more about this plugin here:

• Prevent Hackers And Bots From Finding Your Blog

If you are using outdated WordPress versions remember to back up everything 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 free and paid WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Back Up, Duplicate & Protect Your WordPress Web Site With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

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 problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about using the WordPress CMS platform please see other articles we have published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new content is published.

***