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

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

(WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attacks by hackers)

In March 2014, many leading technology sites began reporting that over 160,000+ WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.

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

According to security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress web sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.

When worldwide attacks happen on WordPress sites, it’s natural for people to start questioning if WordPress really is a secure application for running their websites.

Powering millions of websites and blogs worldwide makes WordPress a target for hacking attacks. But should you really be concerned about WordPress as a secure web platform?

In this article, you will learn some of the main reasons why you should definitely choose WordPress if you have any concerns 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 sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is massive, and the situation is 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 your website has been built with!

Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website is targeted by malicious hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?

”Isn’t Open Source Software An Open Invitation To Hackers?”

Many people will often try to argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for building and running websites and blogs because it’s “open source” and freely available software.

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

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

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

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

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

WordPress continually evolves largely through the effort of a global community working around the clock to fix issues. It benefits from thousands of individuals committed to improving the application and making it safer for every user …

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

As soon as any security problem is discovered by developers or users, the WordPress core development team are then made aware of it …

(WordPress is continually being improved upon by a huge community community of web developers and users. Source: WordPress.org)

The WordPress community support system is quite formidable and anybody can help contribute to the process of getting vulnerabilities plugged.

For example:

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

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

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

WordPress Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms

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 improve platform security. By contrast, a proprietary or “closed-source” CMS platform is typically developed by a small team of developers with limited time and resources to provide continuous security monitoring, maintenance services, bug fixes and software fixes.

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

WordPress CMS Vs Other Open Source Platforms

(CMS Platforms)

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

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

(WordPress experiences less security vulnerabilities than other leading CMS applications. Image: National Vulnerability Database)

Other studies indicate that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and maintain, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security exploits, WordPress sites had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …

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

WordPress Should Not Be Blamed

If someone compromises the security of your WordPress site, don’t be quick to blame WordPress.

According to security organizations Commtouch and StopBadware in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, most website owners are not fully aware of 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 know how their websites were hacked after an attack …

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

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

(Many WordPress sites are running on outdated versions. Image source: Sucuri.net)

When WordPress security issues were examined 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 70% – 80% percent of all security issues are found in plug-ins and developed externally …

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

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

WordPress … Secure Enough For Banks To Use!

The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security has even led Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, to chime into the online debate.

In a blog post entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” posted 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 choose WordPress to build their websites, including banks, leading brands, and e-commerce sites, not just bloggers.

Other Areas Affecting Security

Other factors that can affect WP blog security include things like:

• No platform is completely immune to security threats. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to being attacked, mostly due to software that is out of date.
• The main weakness in all content management systems seems to be the users themselves. For example, many users ignore strong password security recommendations.
• Lack of constant monitoring. All security systems need frequent monitoring, testing, updating and improvement.
• Server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as secure as the least safe site on the grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site broken into, then all sites on the server are potentially vulnerable to hacking also.

There’s No Reason Why You Shouldn’t Choose WordPress

As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is a secure web platform. As long as you continue to implement 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 is really no reason to avoid choosing WordPress to drive your web site or blog.

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

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

• How To Make Your Website Hidden To Hackers And Bots With Blog Defender

If you are using older versions of WordPress remember to back up everything before updating your software to protect your site from the latest security threats. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore your website to its former state.

If you don’t want to back up your site manually, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate & Protect Your WordPress Site With Backup Creator WP Plugin

References

For more information on the above, refer to the sites 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 issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about using the WP CMS platform please click on links to visit other articles published on this site or subscribe to receive updates and notifications whenever new articles or tutorials are published.

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