In 2013 a global brute force attack began hitting WordPress installations on almost every web host in existence around the world.

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

(WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system making it a natural target for hacking attacks)

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

(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Image: 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)

According to security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress 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 if WordPress really is a secure software for building and running their websites.

WordPress powers millions of websites worldwide, which makes it a target for hackers. But should you really 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 consider using WordPress if you have any concerns about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at facts …

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

The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is massive, and things are only going to get worse.

You can safely assume that if you haven’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?

Are “Open Source” Applications Secure?

Many people often argue that WordPress should not be used for running a web presence because its “open source” code is freely available.

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If everyone can view the Open Source software code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily obtain the code and study every line, searching for vulnerabilities they can exploit …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone attempts to hack your website … WordPress or no WordPress!)

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

The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by a large community consisting of thousands of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a community of web developers worldwide is responsible for keeping the code up-to-date. Screenshot image: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of thousands of committed individuals working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from thousands of individuals who, at any one time, are focused on improving the application, identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities and making it safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built and maintained by a large community of web developers. Image: WordPress.org)

As soon as any security weaknesses are discovered by developers or users, these are then recorded in user forums and addressed by the WordPress core developers …

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

The WordPress community support system, therefore, is solid and formidable and anyone can contribute to the process of addressing security issues.

For example:

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

This is one of the reasons why the WordPress community releases new updates on a regular basis, and why you continually need to keep your WordPress site regularly up-to-date …

(WordPress frequently releases new updates to plug security exploits)

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

WordPress is 100% free to download, use and modify, and thousands 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 software that is 100% free to download, use and modify as they wish?

WordPress Vs Other Open Source Applications

(CMS Platforms)

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

For example, the chart below shows the number of security vulnerabilities discovered in each of these open source platforms during a certain period …

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

Other research shows that, because WordPress is easy to use and keep up-to-date, when sites across different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites run on WordPress had less exposure to risk …

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

The WordPress CMS Is Not To Blame

When WordPress sites get subjected to brute-force attacks, users shouldn’t be too quick to blame the WordPress CMS platform.

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 have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to 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 hacked after an attack …

(Most webmasters don’t even know how their sites were hacked. Screenshot source: StopBadware.org)

Of immediate concern for WordPress users, however, is the fact that most security-related problems arise from site owners running WordPress on outdated versions of the software …

(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated WordPress version. Image source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only around between 25% – 30% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by third-party developers …

(WordPress Security Issues. Image: WebDesign.org)

Like many web platforms, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security vulnerabilities that may 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.

WordPress … Good Enough For Banks To Use!

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

In a blog 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 use WordPress to build their websites, including banks, large organizations, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Issues That Can Affect WP Security

Other issues that can affect site security include:

• No platform is completely safe from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using software that is out of date.
• The biggest security weakness 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 frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting are only as safe as the least safe website on the grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on the server are potentially vulnerable to hacking also.

There Is No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Choose WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most other leading web platforms being used by businesses of all sizes to build their presence online. As long as you continue to implement basic security measures (which all website owners should do, regardless of their chosen technology platform) and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) regularly updated, there’s really no reason to avoid choosing WordPress.

WordPress Security – Practical 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 site offers hackers with a valuable resource for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• How To Prevent Malicious Cyber-Attacks On Your WordPress Blog By Hackers

If you are using outdated WordPress versions remember to back up your site before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security risks. 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. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Duplicate And Protect Your WordPress Site With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

References Used In This Article

The facts quoted above were referenced from various 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, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new content is published.

***