Provided by Storyblok.

Security can be a complex thing. Malicious actors are constantly refining their destructive tools, meaning the rest of us have to keep refining our defenses. If you’re like most content management system (CMS) users, this isn’t news: In a recent study conducted by Storyblok, 80% of respondents ranked security as very or extremely important.

Those users also put a lot of trust in their content management systems and tools: As the same study revealed, 78.1% of respondents believe that CMSs take security seriously enough. However, that still leaves a lingering question: How can you be sure that your chosen system will account for every measure necessary to safeguard your content? With respondents ranking the average impact of security issues as 63.6 out of 100, can CMS users really afford to rely on their technology when it comes to content cyber safety?

While many of the technical aspects of managing CMS security will be handled by your IT department, it’s helpful for content marketers to be aware of how cyber safety concerns can impact their brand’s content experience – and what can be done to protect it.

Storyblok’s recent study sheds a little bit of light on the situation. Let’s take a closer look at how security threats can impact your system, how you can prevent them, and how other decision-makers in the industry are tackling the issue.

In 2020 alone, there were 18,325 new common IT vulnerabilities and exposures worldwide. It’s a reflection of an unfortunate truth: Staying safe requires constant vigilance. If you can’t keep up, countless potential threats could negatively impact your enterprise. A few examples include:

• Malicious content changes that can alter assets on your site and damage your brand reputation
• Serious SEO dips can occur if you need to delete compromised content from your site entirely
• Injected malware in content could lead to customers clicking malicious links that originate on your website.

Yet, it’s not enough to simply be aware of these security threats; you also need to know the best ways to counteract them. As an organization, one of the most effective ways to combat these issues is through your choice of technology platforms. But unless you work directly with these (typically) highly technical safety measures, you’re probably not aware of every specific need that a CMS must satisfy to keep your content secure. This can make it hard to know if your system truly delivers the protections you need.

Furthermore, if you should ever find that your CMS isn’t as safe as you need it to be (heaven forbid you discover this through your own security breach), implementing and learning to use a new one will likely be costly and time-consuming.

Any way you slice it, you’ve got to be confident that your CMS will keep your brand – and the value of its content – free from the damage security threats can pose. But if you don’t know quite what that means, how do you know if you’re working with the right system in the first place?

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The good news is that you don’t have to be well-versed in cutting-edge cyber security to keep your content experience secure. That’s what the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is for. Its ISO 27001 collection of standards for managing information security is of particular interest here: Organizations that follow these standards can apply for certification, which shows that they’re in line with the technological safety requirements held by leaders from across the global community.

As you might imagine, proving your business measures up to such meticulous standards doesn’t make this an easy certification to earn. Companies must pass rigorous tests to ensure they’re doing everything they can to protect their customers. Some things that the audits check for include (but are not limited to):

• Access controls that closely keep track of those who have access to company assets, making unauthorized changes to your content less likely to occur
• Top-tier information security practices that work to prevent, mitigate, and recover from any successful malicious content alterations
• Encrypted data transfers so that conversions resulting from your content can successfully and securely go through.

This isn’t a one-time award, either. Companies must constantly show that they’re staying up to date on these standards. This requires vigilance as new threats evolve, and ongoing system updates to repel them.

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In the aforementioned Storyblok study, 530 CMS users shared how they feel about the issue of security threats as they relate to their systems. Here are just a few of the interesting statistics that the survey uncovered:

• 64.3% of respondents worry about the security of their CMS. Security is typically a high priority for most CMS users. However, we found that it’s not just an important aspect: it’s a source of genuine unease. With a majority of respondents feeling that there is reason to worry, it’s worth considering whether their choice of CMS technology can provide greater assurance that their content experience is as secure as possible.

One way to address this could be increased adoption of ISO 27001 certification among CMS tech providers. As discussed, it’s a pretty significant indicator of a highly secure system. More organizations earning these requirements will provide an easier way for users to narrow down their options when selecting a system to work with and (hopefully) worry a little less.

• 55.5% say they experience new security issues monthly, weekly, or daily. Security threats come in all shapes and sizes. Worse still, they happen frequently – which, for most of our respondents, translates to at least monthly. And as the types of threats can vary – and may continue to evolve – they can’t necessarily be combated with the same measures. That means users need the latest innovations in cyber defense to fight them off.

This is another aspect that ISO 27001 can help with. That’s because organizations seeking the certification must undergo regular audits to ensure that they’re ready for modern threats. Choosing a certified CMS means you’re choosing an agile security force that can adapt just as quickly as the security issues themselves.

In @Storyblok’s recent survey, 55.5% of respondents report experiencing new security issues on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis. Learn how to combat these frequent threats #Sponsored Click To Tweet

• 46.4% have had a CMS security issue affect their content. There’s a reason why the phrase “content is king” is so popular: In the digital realm, content is how you communicate with your users, promote your brand and, ultimately, express your organization’s value. Thus, security attacks that target content can put the core of your brand identity at risk. Unfortunately, 46.4% of our respondents know what that kind of threat feels like.

Content issues can lead to a host of potential consequences. Maybe your site crashes when a customer visits, causing them to lose some faith in your brand. Or, your site content could get hacked or permanently damaged, requiring you to rebuild your organization’s identity from scratch. Simply put, security-related content issues can cause dire consequences – and as our survey results suggest, the frequency at which they occur might be higher than you think.

If you’re worried about your CMS’s security, you’re not alone. Threats are an unfortunate reality in today’s digital landscape – a fact that most CMS users are keenly aware of, even if they might underestimate the full impact it can have on their business and its content. Fortunately, ISO 27001 certification might hold some answers. As more CMSs upgrade their cyber safety, choosing those that hold themselves to international standards can help keep your online presence secure.