Your SilverStripe database holds every registered Member account, every User Defined Form submission with all field values, and every file record in the asset system. For New Zealand and Australian public sector organizations, those UDF submissions may include citizen service requests, grant applications, and council submissions accumulated over years. Whoever migrates the database has access to all of it.
What Is Actually Inside a SilverStripe Database
SilverStripe uses MySQL with an ORM-driven schema where each DataObject PHP class generates its own table. The Member table holds every registered front-end user: email address, first name, surname, hashed password, and registration date. Custom profile fields on a Member DataObject subclass are in a separate table. The SubmittedForm and SubmittedFormField tables from the User Defined Forms module hold every form submission ever processed on the site, including all field values. For a NZ district council using SilverStripe, these submissions may contain Resource Consent applications, complaints, public feedback forms, or grant applications with names, addresses, contact details, and case-sensitive personal information. The File table tracks every file uploaded to the asset system, which may include scanned documents, uploaded CVs, identification documents, or other sensitive files depending on the site’s purpose. The SiteTree and SiteTree_Live tables hold all page content including any custom fields defined on page type subclasses.
The critical point for NZ public sector organizations is that this data is subject to the Privacy Act 2020 (New Zealand) and the Information Privacy Principles under it. Migrating it to a third party without proper governance is a reportable privacy incident if a breach occurs. The Privacy Commissioner takes privacy breaches involving public sector agencies seriously, and the 2020 Act introduced mandatory reporting requirements for notifiable privacy breaches.
Your SilverStripe database during a migration with no documented data handling policy.
What Has Gone Wrong in Real Data Migrations
A contractor turned off the firewall for ten minutes while migrating data to ElasticSearch. This exposed the database to attackers who breached over 5 billion data records.
Keepnet Labs breach, documented by Caylent security research
Ten minutes. For a NZ council or government agency with years of UDF submissions containing citizen personal information, the exposure window during an insecure migration runs from when the database backup leaves your server to when it is formally deleted from the provider’s system. For a freelancer, that moment is never defined. The NZ Privacy Act 2020 requires that personal information is protected by reasonable security safeguards against loss, unauthorized access, use, modification, or disclosure, at every point in the data lifecycle. “We sent it to a contractor” is not a reasonable security safeguard.
Without proper encryption and access controls, customer data intercepted during a cloud migration and personally identifiable information exposed due to misconfigured permissions are not hypothetical scenarios. They result in regulatory fines, lawsuits, and destroyed trust.
Monte Carlo Data, September 2025
SilverStripe migrations expose a credential surface that includes your SilverStripe admin credentials (access to all content, members, and forms), your MySQL connection string (access to all DataObject tables), and your server access including the assets/ folder containing all uploaded files, which for public sector sites may include sensitive documents uploaded via file fields on UDF forms.
The Developer and Agency Problem
The developer who migrated your SilverStripe site: the MySQL dump is still on their machine, no DPA, no deletion date.
SilverStripe migrations require knowledge of the SiteTree/DataObject table-per-class schema, the Elemental block table structure, the UDF submission tables, and how to map all of this to WordPress. Most freelancers who advertise SilverStripe migrations have not performed a full database-level migration and have no formal data protection process. NZ government agencies have procurement requirements around data handling that most marketplace freelancers cannot meet.
- No Data Processing Agreement. The NZ Privacy Act 2020, AU Privacy Act 1988, and EU GDPR all require appropriate contractual protections before sharing personal data with a third party. Without a formal DPA or equivalent agreement, your organization may be in breach before the migration begins.
- No credential security policy. Your SilverStripe admin credentials and MySQL connection string are typically shared by email and retained on the provider’s machine indefinitely. No encrypted vault, no deletion commitment, no audit trail.
- No data retention policy. The database backup downloaded for the migration stays on the provider’s machine after completion. There is no deletion date and no notification when it disappears.
- No breach notification obligation. The NZ Privacy Act 2020 requires mandatory reporting of notifiable privacy breaches to the Privacy Commissioner and affected individuals. A freelancer with no contractual breach notification obligation is not equipped to meet this requirement on your behalf.
- No professional liability. If UDF submission data is lost, custom page type fields are dropped, or citizen data is exposed, a freelancer has no insurance and no legal accountability.
- SilverStripe-specific technical failures. Most providers do not understand the DataObject table-per-class architecture, the separate SiteTree and SiteTree_Live tables, the Elemental block table structure, or the UDF SubmittedFormField schema. Migrations appear complete on the surface while structured content and all form history is missing.
How gConverter Does It
How gConverter starts every SilverStripe migration: signed legal documentation before any credentials are shared.
gConverter is a registered US company with EU GDPR compliance and documented processes compatible with the NZ Privacy Act 2020 and AU Privacy Act 1988. We act as a Data Processor under the applicable privacy legislation with a six-step security process applied to every migration including SilverStripe.
Step 1: DPA before credentials
Before you share any credentials, you receive a Data Processing Agreement for review and signature. For GC-ExtraSecurity clients, a Non-Disclosure Agreement is also executed. No data access is granted until both documents are countersigned. The DPA specifies what we process, the lawful basis, retention limits, and our obligations in the event of a breach.
Step 2: Encrypted credential vault
Your SilverStripe admin credentials and MySQL connection details are transmitted via an encrypted channel, never by email. Stored immediately in an AES-256 encrypted vault accessible only to the single assigned engineer. Deleted within 24 hours of job completion with written confirmation sent to you.
Step 3: Isolated staging environment
Your database is exported and transferred over TLS 1.3. For GC-ExtraSecurity clients, processing happens on a dedicated Hetzner EU server in Frankfurt. For standard clients, processing is on the assigned engineer’s encrypted machine (Apple FileVault AES-256). Your data is never on shared hosting and never alongside other clients’ data.
Steps 4 to 6: Logged migration, verified delivery, 30-day deletion
Every database query and file operation is logged. The migration is completed on staging and presented for your review before go-live. After approval and launch, credentials are revoked and deleted. All customer data is permanently deleted within 30 days using secure overwrite. Breach notification within 72 hours if required under applicable privacy law.
Read the complete GDPR and Data Protection documentation →
Questions to Ask Any SilverStripe Migration Provider
- Will you sign a Data Processing Agreement (or equivalent under the NZ Privacy Act 2020 / AU Privacy Act 1988) before accessing any data? Without formal data protection documentation, your organization may bear liability for any breach that occurs during migration.
- How do you handle SilverStripe-specific data: DataObject table-per-class schema, SiteTree vs SiteTree_Live versioning, Elemental block tables, UDF SubmittedFormField submissions? If they cannot answer specifically, they have not done it before.
- How are credentials transmitted and stored? Acceptable: encrypted channel and AES-256 vault. Not acceptable: email, Slack, or any plain-text channel.
- Where is my MySQL data and assets folder processed during migration? Specific server location, encryption method, and access policy.
- When and how is my data deleted after completion? A timeline and a deletion method, not a verbal assurance.
- Do you carry professional liability insurance? Without it, no financial recourse if a breach or data loss occurs.
- What is your breach notification procedure? NZ organizations have mandatory breach reporting obligations to the Privacy Commissioner. Without a documented procedure, a provider has no obligation to notify you.
Technical Quality Matters Too
Security governance is the non-negotiable baseline. But a secure migration that drops DataObject custom fields, loses UDF submissions, or misreads SiteTree_Live as the published version is still a failed migration. A complete SilverStripe to WordPress migration by gConverter covers all pages by DataObject type with all custom fields, Elemental blocks rebuilt as Gutenberg blocks, UDF form submissions archived, Members imported with profile data, assets imported to the WordPress Media Library, SilverStripe templates rebuilt as a custom WordPress theme, URLSegments preserved or redirected, and SEO metadata transferred to Yoast SEO.
For the full technical picture: Why Website Owners Are Moving From SilverStripe to WordPress →
To discuss your specific site: SilverStripe to WordPress migration at gConverter →
What Our Clients Say
Went FAR above and beyond to help us work through this project. We are thrilled with the final result and they were professional, great to work with, and responsive every step of the way. Would highly recommend.
Anna P., Wilmington NC – Customer Lobby, January 2026
Extremely professional and efficient, we had very good contact, the work was done in due time.
Timoti F., Berlin DC – Customer Lobby, February 2024
SilverStripe SiteTree, Members, UDF submissions, and assets – all verified in WordPress.
The Bottom Line
A SilverStripe database for a New Zealand government agency or public sector organization may contain some of the most sensitive citizen data that organization holds. Years of UDF form submissions, Member accounts with profile data, and uploaded documents from file fields are all inside the MySQL backup that any migration provider works from. The NZ Privacy Act 2020 and AU Privacy Act 1988 place specific obligations on how that data must be handled, and most freelance migration providers are not equipped to meet those obligations.
gConverter is US-registered with full documentation compatible with the NZ Privacy Act 2020, AU Privacy Act 1988, and EU GDPR. We sign formal data protection documentation before access, encrypt all credentials at rest and in transit, process your data in isolated environments, and delete all client data within 30 days of project delivery with written confirmation.