In April 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to a global-scale brute force attack.

These attacks were caused by botnets (computer networks infected with viruses and programmed to attack other computers).

(Powering millions of sites around the world makes WordPress an obvious target for attempted hacking attacks)

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

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

As reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

Whenever worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to start asking if WordPress really is a safe platform for building and running their websites.

WordPress is often the target of attacks by hackers, due to its popularity. But should you be concerned about WordPress as being a secure web platform?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should choose WordPress if you are concerned 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 around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and things are only going to get 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 you use!

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?

How Vulnerable Are “Open Source” Software Programs?

Some people will often argue that WordPress should not be used for running websites or blogs because it’s an “open source” and freely available software program.

Open source CMS platforms like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to use and anyone has access to the 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 also easily obtain the code and study every single line, searching for vulnerabilities they could exploit …

(It’s no longer a matter of if, but when before your website is targeted by malicious hackers … 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 weaknesses and vulnerabilities they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software application), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source application actually makes it a lot more secure in a number of ways.

This is because WordPress is supported by a huge community of hundreds of 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 web developers is responsible for keeping the core application maintained and updated. Image source: WordPress.org)

WordPress continually evolves because of the effort of thousands of committed volunteers working around the clock to fix issues. Everyone benefits from thousands of minds 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 a large community of experienced web developers. Screenshot: make.wordpress.org)

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

(WordPress is continually being improved by an open community of web developers and users. Screenshot image: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anybody can contribute to the improvement of the software.

For example:

• If you discover bugs or security holes, you can report these by notifying security@wordpress.org.
• If you find any issues in a WP plugin, you can also report these by emailing plugins@wordpress.org.

This is the reason why the WordPress team is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you continually need to keep your site regularly maintained …

(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to address security weaknesses)

WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary Platforms

We’ve just seen that one of the security advantages of using an ”open” platform 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” software applications are normally built 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 free to download, modify and use, and hundreds of volunteers and expert developers work on improving the technology. 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 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 Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.

For example, here is one study showing the number of security vulnerabilities found in each of these platforms during a certain period …

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

Other studies also indicate that, because WordPress is easy to use and maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, WordPress sites had fewer exposure to risk …

(BlogDefender.com – CMS Tests. Source: BlogDefender.com)

It’s Easier To Blame Technology When Things Go Wrong

If someone hacks into your WordPress site, don’t be too quick to place the blame on 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“, a large number of website owners are not fully aware of the threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or deal with web security compromises.

In fact, over sixty percent 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 image: StopBadware.org)

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

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

When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only around between 20% – 35% percent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are actually found in the WordPress core software, while 65% – 85% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

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

Like all robust web applications, WordPress is updated regularly in order to deal with new security risks that may arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress software, plugins, and themes updated to the latest version.

WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Organizations!

The amount of misinformation about how secure WordPress is has even caused Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, 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, including banks, global corporations and e-commerce sites choose WordPress to build their presence online, not just bloggers.

Other Areas That Can Affect Site Security

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

• No platform is completely 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 risk in all CMS platforms seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore good password security practices.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security systems need to be frequently monitored, tested, updated and improved.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting accounts are only as safe as the least secure site on the hosting grid, so if another user has a weak FTP password on your shared server, then every site on that server is potentially vulnerable.

There’s No Reason To Avoid Choosing 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 implement basic security measures and keep your WordPress software (and plugins, themes, etc.) regularly up-to-date, there’s really no reason why you should not 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:  10 Security Measures That Can Prevent Brute Force Attacks On WordPress

A vulnerable site offers malicious users with a resource for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft. Blog Defender Security Plugin for WordPress makes your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more:

• Prevent Malicious Intrusions On Your WordPress Website By Hackers With Blog Defender Security Plugin

If you are currently using an older WordPress version make sure to back up your WordPress site fully before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore everything to its former state.

If you don’t want to back up your files manually, there are many plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here: Backup, Copy And Keep Your WordPress Web Site Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

References Used In This Article

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 website and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about using WordPress please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles are published.

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