Is It Safe to Use WordPress for Your Site By CIOReview Team

Is It Safe to Use WordPress for Your Site

CIOReview Team | Monday, 22 April 2019, 10:22 IST

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Is It Safe to Use WordPress for Your Site

WordPress CMS engine has been on the market for more than 15 years. Today, it is used by about 30% of the top 10 million websites. It is because of its popularity that WordPress has repeatedly become a target for cybercriminals. It is also often criticized for the lack of an adequate level of security. However, is it really vulnerable to malware attacks, as is commonly believed?

Introduction

First of all, a natural question arises - if this engine is so unsafe, why such big names as Microsoft, The New York Times, and The Walt Disney use it? Each of these world-renowned companies uses WordPress for their sites.

WordPress history

WordPress is a free and easy-to-use blogging platform that has now been transformed into a full-blown CMS. The presence of a big ecosystem of plugins, themes, and services allows anyone to build their own website.

It is not necessary to have solid experience in site building to work with WordPress. It is a strong advantage in comparison to competing solutions. However, there are also some disadvantages. Unexperienced users create unprotected sites with numerous security holes. In addition, inexperienced developers create vulnerable plugins and themes for WordPress.

Let’s turn to statistics. Most cases of WordPress sites hacking that we all read about in the news were not due to the vulnerability of the engine itself. The largest percentage of attacks became successful only because people used weak passwords and outdated vulnerable software. And these site owners were repeatedly warned that there were updates that need to be installed.

Yes, this does not mean that the WordPress core engine is impregnable and ideal in terms of security. Researchers also discovered several vulnerabilities in the main engine code. However, it is important to note that the development team resolves these gaps very quickly, releasing the appropriate patches.

As long as the vulnerabilities are removed and the engine is updated, there is nothing to worry about. Remember the days when Microsoft IIS had to be updated several times a week.

Another important point is that WordPress programmers are constantly improving their security skills. They are constantly trying to protect their users from cyber attacks and invasions. The community has learned from its own mistakes, and now, over the past few years, the development of the engine has improved significantly.

WordPress security

WordPress and its ecosystem have changed a lot lately:

  • The WordPress main development team is actively working with cybersecurity professionals. This approach allows you to be sure that the code is safe and secure, and newly identified vulnerabilities get quickly eliminated.
  • Several new useful security features have been introduced. Among them are automatic recommendations for using strong passwords and tips not to use the default administrator account password.
  • WordPress Foundation volunteers verify themes and plugins uploaded to official repositories.
  • Plugins that have not been updated for several months after the patch is released are marked. And in some cases, they even get automatically turned off, which allows the user to understand that he is using vulnerable components.

Plugins and security services

The initial idea that everything that has to do with WordPress should be distributed for free has changed. Now site owners often realize that they cannot do without professional services and software, therefore, they have to invest money in their project.

All of this has led to the creation of commercial plugins and services, which, in turn, have helped create a more secure ecosystem, as well as raise security awareness among community members.

A few years ago, it was unthinkable to offer paid plugins. Today we have thousands of premium plugins. Naturally, there is nothing bad in free plugins, but there are obvious problems with tech support due to limited resources.

On the other hand, commercial projects allow developers to invest more in security research and product development. This way, more reliable and safe products and services are created that ultimately offer users a better experience.

Is WordPress actually safe?

The main question sounds pretty simple - should you use WordPress for your business project? The answer is – Yes. There is no need to worry about any special weakness of this engine, it’s just a myth.

Many years have passed since the time of such serious attacks as RevSlider and Timthumb. Now this CMS is protected much better.

If you observe a number of basic security rules, there is almost nothing to worry about:

  • Use hacking-resistant passwords. If possible, activate two-factor authentication.
  • Update all your software, including the web server, the operating system on which it runs, and the computer that you use to manage your site.
  • Before installing any plugin, make sure that it has a good reputation and the developer supports it correctly.
  • Install only the necessary plugins. Remove all deactivated plugins, themes and other software and files that are not used by the site.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that this is only a quick glance at the problem, it is enough to make sure that the WordPress engine is completely unfairly attributed to having security problems. In fact, this is a very flexible system that can be customized and fine-tuned to meet each user’s needs.

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