39.1% of Compromised Sites Were Running Outdated Core Software

Sucuri’s 2023 data shows that 39.1% of compromised CMS sites were running outdated core software at the time of infection. That number matters because core software is not “background maintenance.” It is the foundation your themes, plugins, and integrations rely on. When it falls behind, everything else inherits the risk.

This is how breaches happen in the real world. Not with a dramatic takedown, but with a normal week where nobody owns WordPress core updates. A release ships, it sits in the queue, and the window between “patch available” and “patch applied” stays open long enough for automated scans to find it. The site can still load. Leads can still come in. That’s exactly why the gap survives.

For business leaders, the cost is rarely limited to cleanup. A compromised site can disrupt sales conversations, undermine inbound performance, and raise uncomfortable questions from customers and partners. Even if you recover quickly, your team still pays the tax: diverted time, delayed campaigns, and a lingering trust problem you cannot easily measure.

For marketing teams, the temptation is understandable. Updates feel risky because they might break something visible. But an outdated core is its own form of breakage; it just shows up later as an incident instead of a staging test. The practical move is to turn updates into a managed process with clear ownership, routine scheduling, and a rollback plan.

That’s what a mature maintenance approach looks like. WordPress core updates are handled on purpose, not when someone remembers. And over time, that discipline is what keeps “small patching gaps” from becoming big, expensive compromises.

The good news is that this risk is operational, which means it’s fixable. When WordPress core updates have an owner, a cadence, and a tested way to recover from surprises, patching stops being stressful. You do not need more tools; you need a repeatable process. See what that process looks like.

Source: Sucuri - 2023 Hacked Website Report