Reimagine Data Protection in Salesforce: Four Must-have Data Protection Strategies for 2022

Data is the backbone of all business operations in your Salesforce enterprise which is why understanding how that data is shared, stored, & protected is key to success. Every day, employees in your organization create, save, share, & store data, usually sensitive in nature. As the amount of data being created & stored is increasing at an unprecedented rate, the importance of data protection in  Salesforce has significantly increased.

New-age Threats to Data in Salesforce

We bet you’d be well aware of the Log4j vulnerability that hit Salesforce & other big companies last year. Millions of users were affected in its wake & an unimaginable amount of sensitive data & networks was compromised. These vulnerabilities in the Log4j open-source library have been rightly deemed as the ‘biggest security in the history of the internet’ by experts. And this danger is still not over as subsequent vulnerabilities continue to be exposed which will lead to an increase in ransomware & cyberattacks in the coming months.

Moreover, the ongoing COVID scenario has put the CIOs under the additional pressure of running their business & protecting the data remotely. New-age workplace trends like work from anywhere (WFA) & bring your own device (BYOD) have made it more difficult to control, manage, & protect the data as people working remotely demand constant access to data. This leaves the data in Salesforce more vulnerable to hacks & data loss.n

“In the next three years, the value of data will increase, making it even more valuable than it is today. The more efficiently you store your data, the more benefits your business will see.”nn― Thomas Harrer

The implications of a data breach or data loss incident can wreak havoc on the enterprises using the Salesforce cloud platform. Any failure to protect the data in Salesforce can cause financial losses, loss of reputation, & customer trust. Not to mention the legal liabilities, considering most businesses today are subject to data privacy standards or regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, SOX, etc. Also as all business operations depend on data, even a short period of downtime can have major consequences on the business.

State of Data Protection in Salesforce

In 2022, one of the primary objectives of an enterprise, relying on the Salesforce cloud platform to run their business, should be having a reliable data protection strategy. It’s not just about avoiding data breach penalties, it’s more about protecting the company’s proprietary data, & providing the data security the customers deserve. The business must formulate a set of strategies & processes that can ensure the privacy, availability, & integrity of the critical data in Salesforce. A well-thought-out data protection strategy is vital for any organization that collects, handles, & stores sensitive data.

Also Read: Data Backup & Protection in Salesforce: Paving the way for Better Business Productivity

A successful strategy prevents data loss, theft, or corruption & helps minimize the damage caused in the event of a data breach or disaster. Not only does it strategically safeguard the data in Salesforce, but it also provides an efficient pathway for business continuity in case a data loss event occurs.

Must-have Data Protection Strategies for Salesforce Businesses Securely Encrypting the Data at All Times

Encryption technology has emerged as a vital data protection strategy among Salesforce users & this will continue in 2022 as well. Though the highly regulated industries such as finance & healthcare have already adopted encryption techniques, more & more organizations are slowly realizing its importance. This practical approach can solve many issues related to data protection & data privacy. And in case the data falls into the wrong hands, it will be useless for them in its encrypted & undecipherable form. Therefore, encrypting the data in Salesforce at all times (in use, in transit, & at rest) will be an essential data protection strategy in the coming years.

Proper Management of User Access Permissions

Another important data protection strategy currently as well as for the future will be access management. Regulating the users that have access to the Org & its data is extremely important. Setting up proper access controls & permissions for users promotes data security as then users only have access to the data which is relevant for them. This minimizes the risk of accidental modification & deletion. Also since most Salesforce organizations have multi-cloud environments,’ Zero Trust’ strategies can be leveraged to validate & authenticate users as they access data across the multi-cloud network.

Intelligently Masking Sensitive Data

Data masking or data obfuscation techniques can also be used as means to protect the sensitive data in Salesforce Orgs. By hiding the actual data & replacing it with some dummy data, organizations can create an alternate version of the data that cannot be deciphered or reverse-engineered, in case a data breach occurs. In the coming years, more & more businesses are expected to adopt data masking techniques like data scrambling, data substitution, data shuffling, date aging, etc to guarantee the security of sensitive Salesforce data.

Creating Secure & Frequent Data Backups

Backing up the data in Salesforce to a secure third-party location still remains the #1 data protection strategy. When performed properly & frequently on a regular basis, data backups are a great way to ensure the safety & security of data; especially for the business-critical data whose loss or corruption can severely hinder the normal business processes & operations. Enterprises should adopt advanced backup strategies, like cloud backups, as they allow for easy scalability & seamless data management. The fact that data backups mitigate most forms of data threats, reduce data downtime, & increase the survival rate of companies post data loss makes them a data protection strategy that is worth having.

Backup into AWS S3 with DataArchiva Backup

If you’re looking to adopt an enterprise-grade data backup strategy in your Salesforce Org, DataArchiva Backup is at your disposal. This robust data backup & recovery solution intelligently backs up all your sensitive data from Salesforce into the AWS S3 storage, without any manual intervention from your side. Not only this, but the application also makes data recovery, in case of a data loss event, quick & hassle-free for users. To understand the app better, get in touch with our experts.

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DataArchiva is an enterprise data management application built for Salesforce that offers complete data management solutions including archive, backup, and seeding.