How Focusing on the Fundamentals Can Strengthen Your Salesforce Org’s Security

It dominates stock market trends, podcast topics, and Google searches. The constant barrage of news about data breaches, emerging threats, and complex vulnerabilities can be overwhelming, even for industry insiders. For newly appointed CISOs or IT Managers, the ever-growing list of certifications, compliance recommendations, and mandated regulations can seem like an impossible challenge. 

When we hear about $4.3 million dollar data breaches or vulnerabilities with names that sound like they’re from another language (and sometimes literally are), it’s natural to be uncertain. Am I  doing enough? What does “enough” even look like?

Cybersecurity, by its nature, demands constant evolution and adaptation. When I dig into the news bites about the latest breaches and new found vulnerabilities after paragraphs of story telling and technical jargon, what’s always underlying is a comforting truth: the fundamentals should be your north star.

When we peel back the layers and dramatic headlines, we often find that many breaches and vulnerabilities stem from a failure to adhere to basic security principles. While there’s no silver bullet that can solve all cybersecurity challenges, a strong foundation built on fundamental practices can significantly mitigate risks.

The cybersecurity industry has identified key domains that encompass the fundamental principles of information security. These domains, which form the basis of respected certifications like CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), are just as critical for cloud-based SaaS applications like Salesforce as they are for traditional IT infrastructures. For example, implementing secure coding practices in Apex, Visualforce, and Lightning components is essential to protect against vulnerabilities like Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). By following best practices such as proper input validation and output encoding, developers reduce the risk of XSS attacks that could compromise sensitive data or allow unauthorized access to the Salesforce org. 

Check out my article on protecting your org against XSS.

By viewing Salesforce through the CISSP domains lens, organizations can be sure that their CRM is a part of their overall cybersecurity strategy, not a separate consideration.

Let’s explore how these core principles translate to the Salesforce ecosystem:

Security and Risk Management: This involves aligning your Salesforce security practices with your organization’s overall risk management strategy. It includes ensuring compliance with relevant regulations that affect your Salesforce data and ensure business continuity if your Salesforce org is deemed business critical.

Asset Management: This means maintaining a clear inventory of your org’s custom objects, fields, and integrations and understanding your data model and where sensitive information lives. Understanding your Salesforce data as an asset also plays a part in storage, maintenance, retention and destruction of data.

Security Architecture and Engineering: This relates to how you design your org’s security controls, including proper use of OWDs, roles, profiles, permission sets, sharing rules, field-level security, and encryption.

Communication and Network Security: While Salesforce handles the underlying physical network security, this domain could apply to how you secure integrations and API connections with your Salesforce org.

Identity and Access Management: Salesforce has a powerful permission system that allows for granular access control. Implementing the principle of least privilege through well designed profiles and permission sets is a best practice for org security and often the most overlooked vulnerability.

Security Assessment and Testing: Regularly evaluating your Salesforce org’s security posture, including custom code, integrations, user behaviors and penetration testing, should be prioritized to monitor for risks, threats and vulnerabilities.

Security Operations: This involves day-to-day activities to maintain the security of your Salesforce org, including monitoring and managing security updates

Software Development Security: For Salesforce, this applies to secure by design principles, secure coding practices in Apex, Visualforce, and Lightning components, devSecOps, as well as security considerations in configuration changes.

So, while it’s important to stay informed about the ‘latest threats’ and ‘cutting-edge defenses’, never underestimate the power of getting the basics right. In cybersecurity, as with many things, mastery of the fundamentals is going to be your key to success. This is especially true with  Salesforce, where a solid foundation in these core principles can dramatically enhance your org’s security posture.

As Salesforce continues to introduce new capabilities, these security domains will remain your north star, guiding your security strategy. By regularly assessing your Salesforce org against these principles and addressing any gaps, you’ll be well-prepared to protect your precious data.

Remember, effective Salesforce security isn’t about implementing the most complex solutions. It’s a continuous journey of consistency, awareness and shared responsibility.  At Red Argyle, we specialize in translating these principles into tailored, actionable strategies to keep your Salesforce environment secure.

Don’t leave your Salesforce security to chance. Reach out to Red Argyle today and let our team of experts guide you through fortifying your org, identifying vulnerabilities, and ensuring you’re always a step ahead of emerging threats.

Your data is your most valuable asset—protect it with the help of Red Argyle’s trusted cybersecurity expertise.