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Why Do WordPress Websites Get Hacked?
It seems that some websites are more susceptible to hackings than others. There’s a lot of factors that influence what the target of a hack is, and these criteria are what drive hackers to infiltrate your website and input malicious data or steal personal information. However, it seems that WordPress is one of the biggest victims of hacking, and we’re interested in why. With that in mind, we’re going to be taking a look at why people might choose to hack WordPress.
So, Why Hack?
To understand why people might choose to hack a WordPress site, we need to understand why people are hacking at all. Hackers are breaking into websites for a common set of things, and this is what prompts the attacks in the first place. For the most part, they’re after personal information. Fraud and identity theft is widespread these days, and it is easy for a hacker to collect an address, or credit card information, and then proceed to destroy someone’s working life for no other reason than that they can. Alternatively, hackers want to be able to send out spam emails with your site and fill them full of malicious software which will just cause issues for anyone who opens them, believing it to be a trusted website.
Alternatively, people are looking for one of two things. They’re either searching for economic gains, which is just about getting money from the site, or they want to use your resources for their systems. Bandwidth and server space are both things that hackers would want to use for themselves because they don’t have to pay for any of it. Of course, economic gains could be software which drains a bank account of all its money or something that uses credit cards to purchase and send products to people.
Another reason for hacking is just pure boredom. It may not seem like a good motivator for someone to bother hacking you, but you’d be surprised. Some people like the thrill of hacking, and the satisfaction that can often stem from it. People want to hack to satisfy a personal craving for excitement and to fuel their ego. Boredom is a worrying cause of hacking because the lengths people will go to simply to amuse themselves are great, and it’s often done with no thought for what happens to the people at the end.
Why WordPress?
Of course, with reasons for hacks ranging from identity theft to just doing it out of boredom, that still doesn’t answer the question as to why on earth WordPress is such a popular target for hacks. That is, unfortunately, a significant portion of the problem. WordPress is a hugely popular site, with so many users on it, in fact, it is one of the leading providers of websites on the internet right now. That’s what makes it such a typical victim of hackings. It’s just so popular.
If you’re going to hack somewhere or something, it makes the most sense to pick a popular target. Hackers want the biggest reward for the smallest effort, which makes sites like WordPress such a big target. Instead of trying to find the weaker points in hundreds of different sites, it makes more sense to target all of your energy onto one site, because you’re more likely to actually get into it.
The Weakness Of WordPress
Now, we’re not bashing WordPress. The site has been carefully designed to allow maximum user accessibility, and it’s a very versatile way to create a website. The core features of WordPress are very secure and are backed up with some good security to keep people out. However, the problem is that WordPress is also a modular program. This means that people can add their themes and plugins on the site which will make their page more customised and better suited to their unique ideas and tastes.
This is in fact where a lot of things start to go wrong. The ordinary person won’t invent their theme or plugin because most do not have the time or resources required to do so. This means that the plugins they do get are from third parties, which do often contain malicious software. This means that the viruses and coding designed to bypass security has been directly installed by the user, which is what becomes their downfall.
Overall, WordPress is hacked for a handful of different reasons. First of all, it’s popular. As perhaps the most common website provider on the internet right now, WordPress attracts millions of users on a daily basis. And while so many of them choose to use WordPress and experience no issues, there’s still a large number of people who fall victim to hacks and problems. Another thing that you should consider is that people often hack for financial gains.
If you can get into a website, you can see where all of the personal data is stored, and use it for your gain. This means that you can get access to things like credit card information, addresses and names, and then use that information for nefarious purposes. It’s easier now for someone to derail an entire life than it ever has been, and this makes hackers a very dangerous force to be reckoned with. Alternatively, people might hack a WordPress site to gain access to its resources, to be used to power their systems and software, taking their bandwidth or server space without any warning. Of course, the other motivational factor for hacking WordPress sites is boredom.
This is something which is more discreet than normal hacking motivations and is more dangerous. Boredom is unpredictable and hard to figure out; there’s no telling how much damage will be done before whoever’s hacking you becomes content by their actions. Hacking can really be a major problem for bored people with a lot of skill on a computer and no remorse for what happens.
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Source: Security Feed