Why Do WordPress Websites Get Hacked?

Nobody wants to be a victim of hacking. With statistics indicating that about 30,000 sites get hacked every day, it is quite disheartening. And, in most cases, it is often a WordPress website.

But why is it almost always a WordPress website? And do you have to implement several security protocols to stay safe? And why must you have to learn how to be security-minded when configuring your installation? Let’s address these concerns.

Why does hacking occur?

It’s hard to wrap your mind around why your inconsequential blog might be a target. After all, your affairs are not particularly hacker-worthy. Hackers might do it because they want to use your blog to send spam emails, they want to gain the data stored on your site, or they want to access it and use it to download harmful software to your site, or your end user’s computer.

Malicious software can be installed on your website for use, and installed in such a way that your visitors will unknowingly download it to their computers.

One motivation for this is to set up for future, larger attacks. A denial of service attack looks at flooding servers, networks or systems and your site might be one of the victims. Or possibly, the hacker has another target in mind, and is only using your site as a means to an end.

Why WordPress?

The simple answer is, because WordPress has a lot of users.

A hacker, in their own judicious way of thinking, will not target a platform that has only a handful of users. The gains are far too little. But one with millions of users, that’s where the prize is. This is the reason WordPress is so often chosen by hackers.

WordPress might be inherently secure, but it is also very modular because its functionalities can be extended through plugins and themes. Since any developer has the freedom to develop these tools, it is likely that some extensions will not conform to the set standards. A popular plugin might have some security vulnerability that might affect many users at once.

Weakness Breeds Strength

The same thing that seemingly makes WordPress vulnerable is also its greatest strength – its open source nature. White hat hackers can find hidden vulnerabilities and report them for patching. Anyone motivated enough to help improve security can freely do so. Third parties can create increasingly stronger security features to install to your WordPress. At its core, WordPress is very secure. On your part, you can reinforce this security though such ways as not having users named admin and removing your wp-config file away from your public root.

Stay Safe

There are additional security measures you can take. Review every plugin deeply before you install it to ascertain that it doesn’t have any unaddressed security issues. But remember that even the best plugins often have at least one or two vulnerabilities. A popular plugin with many users is reliable because more people will be trying to uncover any faults it has.

You can also subscribe to a security service to boost your security. Your hosting service should also have some additional layers of the same. Chances are, if your site is on a good profit margin, then the cost for a good hosting or security service will be little compared to how much time you would otherwise invest in trying to manage all your security issues.