They sure can be, and in our experience, often are. We have avoided niche edits for years for this reason alone.
Link building is all about relationships, and the connections we’ve created with webmasters and writers are ones we’ve come to trust a great deal over the last decade. That’s right; we’ve been working with some of these folks for a decade, which leads us to believe that when they tell us they have legitimate access to edit their articles, they are being honest.
Your concerns are legitimate, as many will hack into WordPress via outdated WordPress plugins to gain access to old articles. Please feel welcome to ask as many questions as you need.