I kept hearing the word “DORA” everywhere recently. At first, I thought, Did Dora the Explorer make a comeback? Are Salesforce users trying to relive their childhood?
But then, I put on my detective cap and started Googling (literally). That’s when everything clicked and I saved myself from a potential embarrassment.
DORA isn’t about maps and adventures; it stands for Digital Operational Resilience Act. Effective from January 17, 2025, for EU enterprises, it’s designed to strengthen the resilience of financial institutions against cyber threats and operational disruptions. The act emphasizes risk management, data protection, and incident reporting, making robust data backup and recovery strategies more important than ever.
For Salesforce users handling vast amounts of critical data, compliance with DORA isn’t just another regulation, it’s a necessity. Like many other AI regulations for data governance, DORA has come!
Let’s break it down, step by step, and see why this is a game-changer for data resilience and security.
What is DORA Compliance?
DORA is a European Union regulation designed to strengthen IT security and operational resilience for financial institutions. Simply put, it’s the EU’s way of saying, “No more excuses for downtime, cyber incidents, or sloppy data management.”
Enacted to ensure financial entities can withstand and recover from digital disruptions, DORA extends beyond just banking. It’s a comprehensive framework to keep your digital infrastructure (and, by extension, your Salesforce data) protected.
The purpose of DORA compliance is to:
- Reduce cyber risks by enforcing strict security and data protection standards.
- Ensure operational resilience so financial entities can continue functioning despite IT failures or cyberattacks.
- Create a unified approach to risk management, replacing the patchwork of national regulations across the EU.
Who Does DORA Apply To?
If your organization operates in the financial sector, chances are DORA has its sights on you. The regulation applies to:
- Banks and credit institutions
- Insurance companies
- Investment firms
- Crypto service providers
- Payment institutions
- Third-party ICT (Information and Communication Technology) service providers (yes, that includes SaaS platforms like Salesforce)
Even if you’re not directly in finance, if your company provides IT services to financial institutions, you’re not off the hook.
DORA Regulation Key Requirements & Impact on Salesforce Data Management
The idea that DORA is a strict regulatory framework for ICT risk management, requiring financial firms to implement robust backup, recovery, and security measures for their critical data is well established.
Now, understand how core requirements directly affect Salesforce data management:
ICT Risk Management
Institutions must ensure data integrity, availability, and protection against cyber threats, human errors, or infrastructure failures. A structured data backup strategy in Salesforce is crucial to meet this requirement.
Incident Reporting
Organizations must demonstrate the ability to restore data quickly after an incident. This means relying on automated, real-time backups instead of periodic manual exports.
Resilience Testing
Firms must regularly test their backup and recovery mechanisms to ensure they work during a crisis.
Third-Party Risk Management
Financial institutions using external cloud storage for Salesforce must verify the security, retention policies, and compliance readiness of their backup providers.
Although financial enterprises know that DORA is shifting the compliance landscape in the EU, they still require a helping hand in implementing strategies to follow DORA regulation without a headache. Here’s how:
Conduct regular risk assessments to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities.
Test resilience against cyber threats through mandatory penetration and resilience testing.
Report major cybersecurity incidents promptly, including cause analysis, response actions, and preventive measures.
Challenges in Achieving DORA Compliance in Salesforce
While Salesforce is a powerful CRM, it does not offer native, fully compliant backup capabilities that align with DORA’s stringent guidelines. Key challenges include:
- Limited Retention & Recovery: Salesforce retains deleted data only for a short period. Without an external long-term backup solution, companies risk data loss and non-compliance.
- Vulnerability to Cyber Threats: Ransomware and unauthorized data modifications require immutable, encrypted backups that Salesforce does not provide by default.
- Lack of Granular Access Control: Compliance mandates require role-based access and audit logs for backups to track who accessed or modified data.
- Third-Party Data Management Risks: If backups are stored externally, institutions remain responsible for their compliance—highlighting the need for secure, compliant cloud storage integration.
The solution here is to avoid the fear and move ahead with Salesforce data backup with DataArchiva—a robust Salesforce data archiving and backup app that offers a completely automated solution.
How DataArchiva Helps Ensure DORA Compliance
With a strong track record of securing Salesforce data for enterprises, DataArchiva provides a comprehensive, DORA-compliant backup and archiving solution designed specifically to address regulatory mandates and security risks.
Here’s how we help:
- Automated & Secure Backups: Ensures real-time, scheduled backups to safeguard against data loss, providing financial organizations with uninterrupted access to critical records.
- Immutable Storage with Encryption: Protects backed-up data from alteration, deletion, or corruption, meeting the stringent security measures required by DORA.
- Long-Term Retention & Compliance Management: Aligns with DORA’s retention policies, ensuring that historical data is stored securely and retrievable for audits.
- Role-Based Access & Audit Logs: Enables controlled access and detailed compliance reporting, ensuring transparency and accountability.
- Seamless External Cloud Storage Integration: Supports AWS, Azure, and other secure platforms, offering scalable, cost-effective backup solutions while maintaining strict security protocols.
Imagine this: A major financial institution relying on Salesforce suddenly experiences a cyberattack that corrupts its data. Without a reliable, automated backup solution, their ability to recover is compromised, leading to financial losses, regulatory penalties, and reputational damage. This is exactly the kind of scenario that DataArchiva prevents.
Future-Proofing Your Salesforce Data with DORA Compliance
With DORA’s regulatory deadline approaching, financial organizations must act fast to ensure Salesforce data backup aligns with compliance needs. A proactive approach with DataArchiva not only protects business continuity but also enhances operational resilience against cyber threats.
Don’t wait until non-compliance leads to penalties. Secure your Salesforce data today—schedule a free consultation with DataArchiva! Or visit our AppExchange to look at all customer reviews.
FAQs
What are the requirements for DORA compliance?
To comply with DORA, financial institutions must implement robust ICT risk management frameworks, ensure secure and reliable backup solutions, conduct regular resilience testing, and maintain detailed incident reporting capabilities. Additionally, organizations must assess third-party service providers to guarantee compliance across all operations.
How to prove DORA compliance?
Organizations can prove DORA compliance by maintaining audit-ready documentation, conducting regular backup and recovery tests, demonstrating data integrity and security practices, and providing incident response logs. Compliance is typically verified through regulatory audits and reporting processes.
Is DORA mandatory?
Yes, DORA is mandatory for financial institutions operating within the European Union. It applies to banks, insurance companies, investment firms, and other entities handling financial data. Non-compliance can lead to significant penalties, reputational damage, and operational risks.
Explore DataArchiva to help your business.
Learn how to master compliance with automated and scheduled backups!
DataArchiva offers three powerful applications through AppExchange including Native Data Archiving powered by BigObjects, External Data Archiving using 3rd-party Cloud/On-prem Platforms, and Data & Metadata Backup & Recovery for Salesforce.
For more info, please get in touch with us at sales@dataarchiva.com
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Mehzia Naz