In 2013 a global brute-force attack began hitting WordPress installations across almost every WP host server in existence.

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

(Being the world’s most popular CMS makes WordPress a target for attempted hacker attacks)

On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that over 160,000+ WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.

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

When worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for website owners to ask just how secure the WordPress platform is for building and running their websites.

WordPress powers millions of websites around the world, which makes it a target for hacking. 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 choosing WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.

WordPress Security Explained

Let’s start by looking at 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 this is only going to get worse.

It’s probably safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time … regardless of the web platform your website has been built with!

Since it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before someone tries to hack your website, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”Isn’t Open Source Software Highly Vulnerable?”

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

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

The argument against WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can view the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can also easily download the code and go through all of it in detail, looking for security holes that can be exploited …

(It’s not a matter of if, but when before someone will attempt 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 searching for vulnerabilities and weaknesses (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open software platform actually makes it a lot more secure in many ways.

This is because WordPress has the support of a large volunteer community comprised of hundreds of people such as software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who constantly help to improve the program and make WordPress more secure …

(With WordPress, a huge community of hundreds of web developers around the world is responsible for keeping the software platform maintained and updated. Image: make.wordpress.org)

WordPress evolves through the effort of a huge community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. It benefits from thousands of minds who are dedicated to improving the code and making it safer for every user …

(The WordPress core software is built by an open community of volunteer web developers. Image: make.wordpress.org)

As soon as a security problem is identified by developers or users, the WordPress developers are then made aware of it …

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

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anyone can contribute to improving the platform.

For example:

• If you find bugs or a security vulnerability, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find issues in a plugin, you can report these by notifying plugins@wordpress.org.

This is why WordPress is constantly releasing new updates, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs updated and maintained …

(WordPress continually releases new version updates to address any security issues found)

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

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

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

WordPress Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, there is valid research to support the fact that WordPress is actually safer than other Open Source CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla.

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

(WordPress has less security vulnerabilities than other leading CMS platforms. Image source: National Vulnerability Database)

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

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

Don’t Blame The Platform

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

According to a report called “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective,” published by security vendor Commtouch and StopBadware, a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises, many webmasters have no idea about the threats their websites are exposed to, how to properly secure a website, or how to deal with web security compromises.

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

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

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

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

When WordPress security issues were examined in more detail, it was found that only a small percentage of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by 3rd-party developers …

(WordPress Security Issues. Source: WebDesign.org)

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

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is 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 choose WordPress to build their websites, including banks, leading brands, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Factors Affecting Blog Security

Other research on issues that play a role in WordPress security point to factors such as:

• No platform is protected from hackers. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The biggest risk of all web platforms seems to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant system monitoring. All security systems need to be constantly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, sites on shared hosting servers are only as safe as the least secure website on the hosting grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then all sites on the server can potentially become vulnerable.

There Is No Reason To Avoid Using WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most other leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you remember to implement basic website security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) updated, there is really no reason not to use 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:  Preventing WordPress Brute-Force Attacks

An unsecured site offers malicious users with a valuable resource to launch distributed attacks, spread malware and use your website to steal information from others. Blog Defender Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• A Review Of Blog Defender – WordPress Security Plugin

If you are using older versions of WordPress remember to back up your site files and data 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 site backups here: Back Up, Clone & Protect Your WP Website With Backup Creator WP Plugin

References

The facts 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, the above article has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please see our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

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