5 Steps to Mitigate Data Protection Risks in Salesforce

Care to spare 4.45 Million USD? That’s the cost of a data breach as per IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023. Couple that with the rising instances of malware and ransomware attacks, which went up by up by 68% in 2023. That’s not including the other threats to your Salesforce data from human error, unintended sandbox refreshes, macro updates, malicious deletion, and device sync issues. Then throw in the complexity of a Salesforce data restore – it’s no straightforward task. 

It feels like we need to run for cover – let’s do that armed with a list of best practices to mitigate data protection risks in Salesforce.

1. Establish a Secure Ecosystem

To establish a strong base in your Salesforce ecosystem, begin by setting up a secure foundation. The Shared Responsibility Model puts the onus of data protection on you – the controller. Here are some pointers to secure your Salesforce ecosystem: 

1. Activate reliable security measures like two-factor authentication and IP  whitelisting.
2.  Maintain strict control over permissions, following the principle of least privilege to limit access while maximizing productivity. Conduct regular audits of who has access to what in your Salesforce environment. Scrutinize roles and permission sets, verifying that each user’s access aligns with their job requirements. Irregularities could signal an over-privileged user, which must be rectified promptly to reduce internal threats.
3. Harness Salesforce’s security tools such as:
   • Salesforce Health Check‘s functionality to assess your security settings. It gives you single-pane visibility of all your org’s security settings and allows you to identify and fix vulnerabilities in your security settings. 
   • Salesforce Optimizer to gain insights into areas that may need attention or improvement. Salesforce Optimizer provides comprehensive insights directly within your organization across over 50 metrics. This includes details on storage, fields, custom code, custom object layouts, reports, dashboards, and much more, enhancing decision-making and operational efficiency. 
4.  Undertake proactive risk assessments to evaluate potential vulnerabilities actively. 

2. Set up Data Masking Protocols

When deploying sandboxes for development or testing, employ data masking techniques to protect sensitive information. This ensures that your data is not at risk in the event of a breach. 

Salesforce provides native tools to anonymize data before it’s used in non-production environments, helping to prevent accidental exposure. Use the Salesforce Data Mask to automatically mask sensitive data in sandbox orgs. This allows you to configure various levels of masking.

3. Develop a Comprehensive Data Backup Strategy 

It’s a common misconception that organizations bear no responsibility for SaaS tools,  however, Salesforce adheres to the concept of shared responsibility. This means that while Salesforce furnishes a secure platform and environment, the responsibility for safeguarding data, metadata, backup, restoration, and access lies with the organization. 

Backing up your Salesforce data is the only way to enable quick recovery from any point in time – a must-have in these charged times. Develop a robust but practical backup strategy and stick to it. This not only protects your data from loss, but also gives you a recovery roadmap in the event of corruption or inadvertent deletion. 

4. Take Advantage of Salesforce Tools: Shield and Event Monitoring 

Salesforce Shield offers advanced security features like Platform Encryption, Event  Monitoring, and Field Audit Trail. Shield’s capabilities offer a deeper layer of security for critical data, delivering fine-grained monitoring and encryption which many organizations find indispensable. 

With Salesforce’s Event Monitoring, you gain visibility into the granular details of user actions. It provides tracking for more than 50 types of events with details of user activity. This allows you to identify anomalous behavior that may indicate a security threat, giving you the opportunity to intervene before a risk evolves into a breach. 

Consider external audits or security evaluations from third-party experts for an unbiased view of your Salesforce security posture. They can provide deeper insights and validate that your data protection strategies are sound and effectively implemented.

5.  Strengthen Your Weakest Link: The User 

Security is only as strong as its weakest link, which is often down to human error. Invest in regular user training to keep your personnel updated on basic cybersecurity hygiene and best practices in data protection. Knowledgeable users who understand the implications of data breaches are less likely to commit costly mistakes. Keep the training regular, light, and fun by incentivizing them, adding gamification, and more. 

Salesforce offers some handy insights into developing Security Awareness training to foster a culture of cybersecurity within your organization.

Checklist for Salesforce Data Protection

Learn from the best with 8x MVP and 30x Salesforce certified Hall of Famer, Francis Pindar, as he goes over a practical checklist for Salesforce SaaS data protection. This is part of a detailed course on Salesforce SaaS Data Protection by Francis, offered absolutely free on CloudAlly Academy. 

Secure your Salesforce org with a deep dive of Salesforce SaaS data protection with proven best practices and hands-on lab exercises.