Are Pingbacks Safe to use or not?

Hello,

I found this article by Sucuri that says Pingbacks in WordPress can be used to hijack your site and use it in a massive DDOS attack on another site. Is this true or just an advertising trick by Sucuri? I am using Pingbacks to build relationships with other blog owners in my niche and love them. Can you please tell me if it is safe to use them and if not will it be resolved with a future update? Thank you.