WordPress is the most popular web design platform available. It is easy to use and it is versatile. It can be used by a complete novice or by professional web development services like Nicely Done Sites to create any kind of website. With so many people using it there is a downside since it makes for a large target for people looking to conduct cyber crimes. Since your website from Nicely Done Sites is using WordPress this is certainly alarming but there is an easy way to avoid having your site be next.
Why WordPress Is Vulnerable
The main reason that WordPress sites are more vulnerable is simply more people use it. Criminals targeting a vulnerability want their actions to have the largest payoff and they will go where the people are. It is the same reason that there are more vulnerabilities for Microsoft than Apple.
WordPress offers so much versatility with different themes, plugins and almost unlimited customization. Many themes and plugins are not developed by WordPress but instead by 3rd party developers and many can have vulnerabilities in its code. Most developers are quick to fix it but that also means a patch must be installed and in many cases these are slow to be installed.
Sucuri Study
In a recent study conducted by the online security company Sucuri it was found that 90% of all ecommerce sites that were hacked in 2018 were WordPress sites. Obviously these sites will have valuable information on customers like credit card or bank account information that makes them lucrative targets. Many also do not keep everything up to date because of the fear that functionality will be lost because of an update.
Another interesting find is that while a lack of keeping the core installation up to date is on other platforms is almost always the reason that a hack occurred, in WordPress it is only the cause about 36% of the time. Most WordPress users are keeping their core site up to date, which is a good thing.
So What Makes WordPress Vulnerable
Most of the hacks on ecommerce sites occur because a backdoor is made available for the attacker. Most of this happens because of a vulnerability with various plugins. When a vulnerability is discovered it is patched and it needs to be updated but many users are slow to update.
When an ecommerce site is compromised one of two things typically happen. These sites can either host malware that will be used to attack other sites or an SEO spam attack will be conducted to manipulate the SEO algorithms. These attacks abuse the rankings to gain more monetary value until the site is blacklisted.
What Can You Do?
The most obvious thing that can be done is to keep your WordPress site up to date, with both the core installation and any plugins. This goes for ecommerce sites as well as any other site. Keeping your WordPress site up to date is relatively easy to do and requires little time in most cases. If you are not comfortable doing so yourself or you do not have the time Nicely Done Sites offers a maintenance agreement.
Maintenance Agreements
With a maintenance agreement not only do we make sure that your WordPress website is up to date and in good working order but we also actively monitor the site to make sure that nothing out of the ordinary is going on with the site. Preventing an attack may not always be possible but the quicker it is detected the easier it will be to stop.
Nicely Done also knows that the reason that many ecommerce sites do not update is that they do not want to break the website. This is of course a valid concern since anything that is broken requires time to fix and can cost you sales. There is a reason that most updates get processed overnight when fewer people are using a site. When Nicely Done processes an update we also make sure that no functionality is lost as well.
We can’t stress enough the importance of keeping your WordPress core and plugins up to date. This simple act alone can go a long way towards keeping your site safe and secure. But vulnerabilities will be discovered and updates will need to be installed. At the end of a long day this might be the last thing that you think about when you just want to unwind. It is the first thing that Nicely Done thinks about.