Hacking has been a big issue lately. With the NHS being hacked and compromised, Sony Network (devastating), Petya Ransomware, the WPP hackings, Apple iCloud, etc…
A lot of attention has been looked towards how secure the WordPress CMS is. With a lot of rumours, usually spread by sleazy marketing companies to slate other marketing companies that use WordPress, questioning WordPress’ lack of security.
It is fair to say, that yes, hacked sites do sometimes tend to be made with WordPress, but it is unfair to say that hacked sites are because they are on WordPress. Firstly, WordPress releases regular updates. If you keep the site regularly updated then this should minimalise the risk of being hacked. Secondly, it is unfair to blame WordPress for your site being hacked; when you have sites such as the NHS (not on WordPress), Sony (not on WordPress), Apple iCloud (not on WordPress) suffering from hacks. Bearing in mind these companies spend 000’s of pounds on their web security.
WordPress hosts around 74,652,825 sites worldwide. If 1 in every 1000 hacks were successful, you would still be looking at 74,652 sites successfully hacked. Simply put, WordPress is a large target market for hackers.
If you wanted (and were able) to try and successfully scam 1 in every million people that were to go for their weekly shop… would you target the corner shop down your road? Or would you target Tesco (Tesco receiving 79,000,000 shopping trips per week)? This is exactly why hackers will attempt to target WordPress, it’s simply a bigger target!
Not at all, there is a good reason why WordPress is one of the most commonly used CMS’s, it’s a great tool! Allowing for open end development and with a massively growing source of plugins allows for great looking, secure and functional websites. As long as you use a strong username and password and keep WordPress updated the likeliness of your being successfully hacked will be incredibly low (a lot lower than a lot of other sites out there).
Still, even with WordPress’ own security, there are numerous added security plugins available from the WordPress Plugin menu.
All in all, WordPress is ours (and many others) most recommended CMS. Mainly for the great functionality AND SECURITY. Don’t let the rumours scare you!