The State of Security: Keeping Your Salesforce Data Safe in 2023

Jenna Trott

5 min read | JANUARY 25, 2023

What threats to data exist in 2023?

As the amount of data stored in cloud-based platforms increases, so does the likelihood of cybersecurity breaches. While it’s important for all businesses to protect their data and information, this is especially true for those working within sectors handling particularly sensitive information like financial services, healthcare, and government. Here are some of the contributing factors that put you at risk for data breaches.

Cloud Misconfigurations:
A Gartner study revealed that 80% of all security breaches result from poorly configured cloud platforms. This can occur when gaps or errors develop that expose your business’ most valuable information. Cloud misconfigurations can happen for a number of reasons, but common causes are:

This same Gartner report projects that through 2025, 99% of cloud security failures will be the customer’s error, which is all the more reason to ensure your cloud configuration is rock-solid!

Data Overloads:
We’ve discussed at length the downside of too much data, but research conducted by IDC estimates that the volume of data created over the next three years will amount to more than all the data created over the past 30 years; yet 97% of data sits unused by organizations. Having too much data can make your business vulnerable in a number of ways but particularly because:

Vulnerable Internal Security Policies and Practices:
The best way to protect against cyberattacks and data breaches is with a strong internal security policy and practice. Companies should be regularly auditing their system to determine where a higher level of enforcement is needed. Additionally, you should educate employees about ways to safely access sensitive data remotely, guidelines for creating and maintaining safe passwords, and evaluating potential external threats – to name a few.

How can you keep your data secure?

As a business, you have a responsibility to safeguard the important information your customers and clients have entrusted to you. This can be accomplished in a number of ways:

Salesforce Shield:
Salesforce already utilizes MFA (multi-factor authentication) which requires users to provide two or more forms of identification before they can access the Salesforce platform, but they also have Salesforce Shield. Salesforce Shield is a cutting-edge set of security features and tools specifically designed to help organizations secure their Salesforce data and platform. In addition to native platform encryption, Salesforce Shield also provides state of the art event monitoring and provides a detailed audit trail of all activity. Further, Salesforce Shield allows organizations to scan their Salesforce instances for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, helping to identify and remedy potential security issues before it ever happens.

Review and Update User Permissions Regularly:
It’s critical to ensure that only authorized users have access to your business’ sensitive data within Salesforce. Regularly reviewing and updating user permissions ensures that access is adjusted for those who may have left the company or are in a position where they no longer need it.

Data Loss Prevention Tools:
Data Loss Prevention tools help to monitor and control the flow of Salesforce data to prevent sensitive information from being shared or leaked. Users can also achieve this with the aforementioned Salesforce Shield to build extra levels of trust, compliance, and governance. Additionally, users can visit Salesforce Appexchange for third-party data loss prevention tools.

Clean Up Data:
As we’ve mentioned, housing too much data can put a strain on your company’s storage infrastructure, leading to missed anomalies and critical delays. If you’re finding it difficult to clean up your business’ Salesforce data on your own, consider employing a Salesforce consultant to help, particularly if you’ve recently migrated your business over to Salesforce from another system. In addition to validating data against business rules and data quality standards, a Salesforce consultant can also help scrub your system of duplicate, incomplete, or inaccurate data as well as merge duplicate records, reduce data redundancy and improve the overall quality of your data. The right Salesforce consultant can also help your business train employees on how to properly handle and maintain data, further reducing the risk of cyberattacks resulting from human errors – which leads into our last point!

Train Employees on Best Practices
Employee education and awareness is one of the best ways to keep your Salesforce data secure. Working with your employees to provide training on security best practices, such as strong password creation, phishing awareness, proper data handling, and storage can significantly decrease your company’s risk of cyber threats and attacks.

Get started cleaning up your Salesforce org today

Salesforce is a powerful platform that is used to store and manage a wide range of sensitive information, which is why it’s important to regularly review and clean-up data as well as provide employees with appropriate data training in order to protect against data breaches and ensure the integrity and confidentiality of their sensitive information. Access Global Group’s team of certified experts know Salesforce inside and out. This means that when they come to you, no stone is left unturned and they’re able to solve any conflict with agility and accuracy. Regardless of where you are in the digital transformation journey, Access Global Group will provide customized solutions that align with your goals so you can focus on not only reaching them, but going far beyond what you thought was possible. Our unique project methodology of customer centricity allows us to provide intuitive solutions that are acutely catered to your organization’s needs. And as your premier Summit Salesforce Partners and Consulting Services/Managed Services experts with over 15 years in the industry, we’ll use our technical expertise to meet your unique needs and generate real change within your organization.

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