Wordpress Sites Face 3.5 Billion Cyber Attack Attempts A Day, New Data Shows

Mark B., Tech Times 09 November 2020, 09:11 pm

New data from website maintenance pioneer Glow shows that businesses using Wordpress websites are regularly targeted by hackers, with a daily average of 3.5 billion attempts.

On behalf of Glow, Gemma Birbeck reports that the website maintenance platform gathered and collated data from September 1 to 30. It found a total of 52,589 suspicious logins across the small business sites subscribed to the maintenance app.

It equates to an average of 1,421 attempts for each site all through September, meaning that each WordPress website using Glow experiences around 47 hacking attempts every single day.

According to the WordCamp website, there are more than 75 million websites using the web hosting platform. Extrapolating the data brings WordPress' total daily average hacking attempts to a staggering 3.5 billion.

Also Read: WordPress World-Wide Hacking Spree Begins With The Plugin Bug that Uploads Malicious Files

Costly and Consistent Security Threats

A 2019 report from the Federation of Small Business (FSB) states that cyberattacks - including website hacks - on small businesses is estimated to be at £4.5 billion ($5.9 billion), with individual attacks costing around £1,300 ($1,700) each. Additionally, FSB reports that the most common strategy used is phishing - working to obtain sensitive information by pretending to be someone else, usually through emails or phone calls. Phishing alone is responsible for affecting 530,000 small businesses for the past two years prior to the report.

WebARX, a web application security platform, also conducted its independent study. It found that almost two in every three businesses (66 percent) who experienced cyberattacks expressed worries about ever recovering from their losses.

Adopting The Latest in Website Security

Phil Storey, a tech entrepreneur and website developer baked in Leeds, founded Glow - a platform to streamline website maintenance and keep them updated, secure, and efficient.

"Website maintenance has always been a difficult service to sell due to lack of understanding about its importance and perceived costs, and it's often something people only explore once they become a victim of a website issue," Storey said in a statement.

He explained that he developed Glow to change the status quo, educating people about the importance of website maintenance and protecting their businesses. "We're already beginning to see changes in people's views, however, there's a long way to go and the time to act is now," the Glow founder noted.

"Since COVID-19 first hit the UK in March, internet usage has increased, and this is something which hackers have taken advantage of. As small businesses across the world battle with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's important now more than ever that they protect themselves from further financial crisis," Storey added.

In the face of mounting online security risks, Storey's concerns are supported by WebARX's 2020 security survey - noting that "more than 73% of digital agencies and freelancers are increasingly worried about website security." Furthermore, this number is slightly higher, at 75%, among WordPress users. Unfortunately, only a little less than half, or 45%, of these correspondents take proper measures to protect the sites they manage.

Digital agency FSE Digital has also reported that from April to September 2020, clients invested an average of £50,000 ($65,880) to website refresh and development.

"The challenges we face when selling maintenance packages varies from client to client," said Chloe Newing, FSE Digital Operations Manager. "The main issue that we have is clients can't physically 'see' what they are paying for, and so they think that having monthly maintenance isn't cost-worthy for their business - when in actual fact it is very important, as you can't put a price on ensuring the security of your website."

Glow is definitely stepping up to be a complete solutions provider against the ever-present threat of cyberattacks. It covers most website maintenance tools - backups, uptime monitoring, high-level security, WordPress core updates, and even offers custom development work.

To learn more about keeping your website safe from online threats, check the official Glow website.